


Underneath the Underneath

by Shivvlan



Series: Deep Within [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventure, Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-23
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 00:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 62,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shivvlan/pseuds/Shivvlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things are not always as they appear, and people are not always who they seem to be. Whatever you do, and whoever you talk to, remember to always look Underneath the Underneath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I recently decided to re-read this story and it occurred to me that because of a few small edits I've made here-and-there over the years my personal copy of this story is very different in some parts from the original, posted version. In fact the ending, specifically, is nothing like the original. Because of this I have decided to upload my personal copy. (Changed as of Feb 2017)
> 
> TLDR; no, you're not mad. The story is different from how you remember it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sequel to my story 'Skinless'. This story can be read stand-alone, but there will be things that you miss if you haven't read Skinless first.

## Prologue

 

This mission had gone badly from the beginning.

Sasuke and Naruto had been dispatched from Konoha with what they had thought were easy orders; find the root of some unexplained disturbances in the area two days east of Konoha and eliminate them – use whatever was needed to get the job done but keep it silent.

Everything had gone fine until they’d actually arrived and started looking around. Nearby villagers were terrified to go out alone, and that was just by day. By night nothing short of an all out war would force them to unbar their windows and doors.

They had gathered vague reports from the tight-lipped people of disappearances and brutal deaths, but no one was willing to make the stories concrete.

On the third day after they had started investigating they had been ambushed.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had fought well, suffering no injury’s as they fought off their attackers and got to safer ground. However the ambush had had a different purpose than what they had assumed it had. Their assumption was that they had been attacked merely to get rid of them and to stop the investigations in the area; it wasn’t until it was to late that they realised it was to separate them to make them easier targets.

They had attempted to stop that from happening once they had realised, but that plan had backfired too and the result was what Sasuke was dealing with now. He had defeated his enemies, but somewhere along the lines Naruto had been driven away from the main fight and now Gods knew where he was.

Damn it! What had happened to Naruto?! Sasuke began searching for tracks, slowly moving back the way he had come as he’d fought, searching for any clues as to where and when Naruto had been turned away from the path.

It wasn’t long, though it _was_ longer than Sasuke liked, before he found the tracks he was looking for and began to follow them. There was evidence that Naruto had been followed, but Sasuke was relieved to note that it wasn’t by a number that Naruto couldn’t handle. He was even more relieved when following the tracks further he found signs of battle and all of the enemy that had followed Naruto were accounted for – there was no Naruto though. _That_ worried Sasuke slightly, where the hell had he gone?

 

***

Naruto wended his way through the forest, jumping from tree limb to tree limb and attempting to use his Chakra as little as possible so he didn’t give away his position. He moved silently but quickly, eyes raking the trees and foliage for enemies, ambushes or traps.

After Naruto had been separated from Sasuke, he had quickly taken care of the small group that had attempted to herd him away from the main fight but no sooner than he had turned to go back to the fight, then another small group of Ninja had attacked him, forcing him to flee to slightly safer ground to fight the second battle.

And as soon as he had finished that there had been a third attack…and then a fourth.

He’d stopped fighting by the fourth attack and simply fled; not from cowardice, certainly not, but because he _knew_ that if he didn’t get back to Sasuke soon then _something_ bad was going to happen. Sure, that something bad might only be Sasuke lecturing him for allowing himself to get separated from the black-haired boy, but Naruto was never one for lectures, and Sasuke tended to give some pretty scolding ones when Naruto had forced him to worry.

The mere thought made him wince and redouble his efforts to avoid the group of enemy following him and get back to Sasuke quickly.

***

A swift scouting of the area surrounding Naruto’s fight revealed what direction he’d gone in and Sasuke _was not pleased_. Naruto had been attacked again and had slowly been herded in the opposite direction from Sasuke. The tracks Sasuke followed quickly took to the trees and he was only slightly assuaged when he found the tell-tale marks hastily carved into the branches that Naruto had obviously left for Sasuke to follow.

Following the marks, Sasuke quickly began to trace Naruto’s back trail.

***

Naruto stayed still in his chosen tree, a giant thing with branches near the _top_ that were thicker than his waist, and watched as the group that had been following him finally stopped combing the area and went running back the way Naruto had come and straight towards where he knew Sasuke was going to be.

There were no doubts in Naruto’s mind that Sasuke would be tracking him by now so the group of enemy ninja would reach him in a matter of minutes.

Naruto gnawed on his lip a little, the salty taste of left over blood from a minor cut giving it a hint of flavour, and then slowly began to follow the group. Damned if he’d let them attack Sasuke unaware.

***

Sasuke didn’t get far along Naruto’s trail before he was set upon by a group of ninja.

The group was bigger than the last one and Sasuke was forced to stop worrying so hard about his missing team-mate and to focus. Eyes flashed red with his Sharingan, mimicking the colour that soon coated his kunai making them slick and hard to hold.

***

Naruto didn’t get far. Some of the nin had doubled back and he soon had a small fight on his hands. More than a small fight really; but nothing he couldn’t handle. His worry and anxiousness to get back to Sasuke made him sloppy though and getting the group out of his way took longer than it should have.

Cursing himself, and cursing the nin that had attacked him, Naruto eliminated them all in one way or another and then shot back down his back trail.

***

Spinning in mid-air, Sasuke delivered a double kick to the last of the nin that had attacked him then, landing in a tightly coiled crouch, he glared around him, searching for anyone who could have been hiding in the trees for a chance for an unguarded moment.

Nothing.

Except that he could _feel_ eyes on him. The malignant force behind the gaze burned into the back of his neck and made the tiny hairs there stand on end.

Moving out of his crouched position, he tightened his grip on the single kunai he still held (the other having been lodged in a tree barely a minute into the fight) and looked around himself slowly, turning on the spot to carefully examine _every_ piece of his surroundings.

The one who had been watching him was standing before Sasuke when he got back to his original position.

Sasuke froze as he realised who it was, his throat going dry and his grip on his Kunai becoming shaky. It was _him_. Sasuke grit his teeth together, not even trying to suppress the growl that clawed it’s way up out of his throat, and opened his eyes wide to reveal the three perfect dots in each eye, in preparation for battle.

The man remained still for a moment and then a slow smile ghosted over his lips. “So hasty…little brother.”

***

“ _Daaaamn_!!” Naruto whined as he was halted, _again_ , by a group of nin’s laying in ambush. What _was_ this; get in Naruto’s way day?! “Get the hell out of my _way_!” Naruto yelled as he slammed someone hasty enough to attack him head on into a tree.

None of his opponents responded, but they didn’t get out of his way either.

“Argh! I am _so_ going to kick all of your arse’s so hard you’ll be sorry you _ever_ got in my way!” He screamed and threw himself into the middle of the group, his hands forming signs as he flew through mid-air, “ _ **Mass kage-bunshin no jutsu**_!!”

***

Sasuke took a cautious step backwards as Itachi took a slow step towards him and took a breath, forcing himself to remain calm and think. What was _he_ doing here? Why was he _here_?

He took another, slow step backwards, his mind racing as he thought. The unexplained disappearances and the terror on the villages so thick you could taste it must have been cause by this man, but _why_?

Why? He knew why! Sasuke suddenly jerked his head up and around, doing his best to search the area for the Chakra of his missing partner; where the hell was Naruto?

Sasuke’s first thought, the obvious one, was that the entire situation here had been staged. Staged so that Itachi could get his hands on Naruto, or Sasuke, or both. Then he shook his head; there was no way Itachi could have known that Naruto and Sasuke would be sent on this mission; this had to be an attack of opportunity.

Sasuke levelled his gaze back on his brother, his quick search for Naruto’s Chakra unsuccessful, and found himself growling, “what are you doing here?” he demanded.

***

Argh! They just kept on coming! Had every evil ninja in the world suddenly decided to visit this part of the forest or something? How the hell was he supposed to get _out_ of this?!

Naruto felt the returning Chakra of no less than five of his clones and growled under his breath and put his back to a tree. Bastards, they just weren’t going to get out of his way, were they? Well, one more try (no use destroying the forest for no reason) and then he’d call out the big guns.

***

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Itachi replied, his voice a calm monotone that rivalled even Sasuke’s for lack of emotion.

Sasuke glared, his muscles tensing and the grip he had on his kunai forcing his fingers to turn white with the pressure.

“What do you _want?!_ ” Sasuke adjusted his position again, moving his hand closer to his weapons.

Itachi’s eyes raked over Sasuke’s preparations and then he slowly met his younger brothers gaze, answering without hint of hesitation or interest.

“The blond,” he said the words as if tasting them. “Uzumaki Naruto.”

Sasuke’s gaze went flat. He’d expected the answer, especially after what had happened the _last_ time he’d seen his brother; but to hear the words was another thing entirely. There was no way, absolutely _no way,_ he’d let that murdering bastard touch Naruto.

“Do you plan to fight me?” Itachi asked, his voice finally showing an emotion; amusement. “You’re still to weak.”

Sasuke’s vision went white, the emotions he’d been pinning behind his icy inner walls flashing through him in an instant. He was _not_ weak, not now. He’d prove it.

With a cry of rage he took his kunai in both hands and hurled himself at his brother with all his might.

***

Focusing Chakra into his feet, Naruto leapt upwards into the tree and hung onto a thick branch, attaching his feet to it firmly and ignoring the feeling of blood rushing to his head as he hung there upside-down.

Okay, try number two with the mass kage-bunshin hadn’t worked; time to use the stronger stuff.

Closing his eyes to concentrate, Naruto trusted in his clones to protect and hide him and cupped his hands, one over the other, near his chest, his mind focusing on the Chakra he was gathering between them. It had been hard, but he’d managed a better manner of control over this move, instead of having to rely on having a clone around to help him with it. Slowly the Chakra between his hands began to swirl, sluggishly beginning to twist around itself and gaining speed by the second.

Naruto felt a smirk flit over his lips then he glared down at the fighting beneath him, if he aimed this right he could take out most of the idiots fighting him in less than a second.

He waited for his opening, his clones carefully manipulating the battle to _give_ Naruto that perfect shot. The window of opportunity flashed up a few seconds later and Naruto released the chakra holding him to the tree branch and flipped in mid-air.

“ _ **Rasengan**_!!”

***

“ _Haaahhh_!!” Sasuke channelled Chakra to his feet and flipped in mid-air, planting his feet firmly on the trunk of the tree Itachi had thrown him at and, not even pausing, launched himself away from it again. Itachi was gone from where he had been, but Sasuke found him fairly quickly as he was knocked to the ground so hard his breath was driven out of his lungs and his kunai skidded away to be lost amongst wet, muddy foliage.

Gasping for breath, Sasuke rolled and stumbled to his feet, his hand diving into his leg holster for another Kunai.

Itachi hadn’t moved. He stood where he’d reappeared, watching Sasuke with an expression that might have been completely unreadable except that his lips seemed to be twisting slightly, as if he’d tasted something unpleasant.

Sasuke tightened his grip on his kunai as Itachi suddenly moved. The twist in his lips disappeared, but the look in his eyes grew hard and he pulled his left arm, which up until now had been slung inside the top of his robe ronin-style, free of his clothing and tucked the loose sleeve in to his belt to stop it from getting in the way.

Sasuke’s eyes gleamed; his brother was finally getting serious.

***

Landing perfectly on the leaf strewn ground, Naruto looked over his handy work. It wasn’t pretty but unsurprisingly the attacks on him and his clones had stopped. A couple of trees had been blown clean over (one had even been blown up) and quite a few of his own clones had been caught in the attack, but now there wasn’t anyone even remotely conscious to challenge him.

Game, Set and Match: Naruto!

Letting the jutsu for his remaining clones go, Naruto jumped back into the trees and resumed his interrupted journey in search of Sasuke.

***

Sasuke crouched low on the tree branch he’d landed on and clutched a hand to his left side in an attempt to stop his heavy breathing from paining him any more than it already was. Actually, ‘landed’ wasn’t really the right word to describe how he’d arrived where he was. ‘Crashed into’ sounded a little better; ‘collided with’ was even closer. Suffice to say it had collected him on his way down, cracking a few ribs but preventing him from having a meeting with the ground below that he would probably not want to experience.

“Weak!” A voice below him spat, disgust tingeing it around the edges, “All this time and still weak.”

Sasuke growled low in his throat and pulled himself to his feet, testing the damage on his ribs before releasing them and pulling one of his last kunai out of his weapons pouch.

He _would_ defeat Itachi. A second later he was free-falling.

Wind rushed passed his face, whipping his hair out of his eyes as he fell, and random leaves slapped at him, stinging only slightly as he passed them. After a certain distance he twisted in mid-air, flipping himself around so that when he landed it was on his feet. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he fell into a crouch to absorb the impact and then sprang back up again and launched himself across the small clearing they’d somehow found themselves in, at his brother.

Seconds later Sasuke returned the same way, a solid blow from Itachi having slammed him hard into a tree, causing him to slide halfway down it before he could catch himself and get more firmly on his feet. Sasuke’s mouth twisted up into a brief smirk that disappeared almost instantly as a small coughing fit left him spitting out a mouthful of blood. He carefully adjusted his stance, searching out his injuries. It didn’t feel like his ribs had taken any more damage…but things were certainly getting shaken up. No time to worry though.

Channelling his Chakra into his legs, Sasuke jumped into the air and, putting his now weapon-less hands together, formed a few seals and aimed himself in Itachi’s general direction.

“ _Katon,_ _ **Housenka no jutsu**_!” Sasuke’s forefinger and thumb curled into a circle as he breathed the last word through them and a group of nearly ten small fireballs flew through the air towards where Itachi was standing. He had enough time to see Itachi’s smirk before the flaming balls seemed to float to a stop then began to hurtle back the way they had come, straight at Sasuke.

He’d been ready for that. Twisting, he grabbed a hold of the end of a nearly invisible length of string that he’d attached to the tree he’d free-fallen from and used his weight to swing himself to safety. Behind him the fireballs exploded against the trees ringing the clearing and set them ablaze, severing his string in the process. Working with the momentum he already had, Sasuke let go of the now useless string and swung himself, ribs sending waves of aching pain through his side, up onto a relatively safe branch and dived his right hand into his weapons pouch, pulling out three shuriken and immediately hurling them at his blind side.

Itachi dodged the thrown weapons and landed back on the ground, the fire, that was now dying down as the Chakra supporting it dissipated, casting an eerie glow over his features and causing his eyes to shine red.

Sasuke glared down at his brother in the brief pause and his lips twisted into half sad, half frustrated smile. That man really was much better than him, even after all this time. Sasuke probably couldn’t hope to win this fight; he’d already been damaged to much yet Itachi was still unmarked. At least this time he was putting up a fight. _This_ time he wasn’t the pathetic weakling he’d been when he’d last seen his brother. It made his chest tight to think that even after everything he’d been through, everything he’d done, he still needed more training if he hoped to beat _that man_ – but he guessed it was to late now. So long as he could, he’d keep on fighting and unless Itachi tired of this game and fled, Sasuke could probably bet that this would be his last battle.

He briefly wondered where Naruto had gotten to; hopefully the blond had left already, going back to Konoha to report the outcome of this mission. Sasuke didn’t want Itachi to get his filthy hands on the blond, no matter _what_ happened.

Crouching slowly, Sasuke pulled his final Kunai from his leg holster and narrowed his eyes at Itachi. He couldn’t hope to win, but he could hope to wound. Itachi would remember this fight, Sasuke would make sure of it.

Using his free hand to pull another three shuriken from his weapons pouch, Sasuke leapt into the air and hurled them at one of the still flaming branches above Itachi’s head, snapping it away from it’s tree and sending it crashing to the ground.

Itachi’s dodged easily and Sasuke twisted himself around from his original flight path, throwing his kunai at the other man and grabbing hold of a tree branch to swing himself behind the tree’s main trunk.

Quickly he focused his mind on his hand and began to gather his Chakra, forming the Chidori taught to him by Kakashi. It was the one move that Sasuke was fairly sure Itachi couldn’t counter. The blue glow intensified around his left hand and Sasuke waited; but not for long. Barely ten seconds after Sasuke had taken cover behind the tree trunk and gathered the Chidori there was a deafening explosion as the fire from the falling tree branch ignited an explosion note he’d planted earlier in the fight.

Sasuke used the explosion as cover and hurled himself back into the clearing, freezing only a moment at what he saw. Itachi was still in the clearing, his face a picture of surprise. _Surprise_. It wasn’t Sasuke’s feeble attack of his kunai that had startled him, or the unexpected explosion either. No, what had him in a moment of complete guardedness was that when Itachi had dodged the kunai and then begun to dodge the explosion, some freak strike of dumb luck had caused the blast of the explosion to hurl that same weakly thrown kunai at him again and he was now unexpectedly pinned to a tree by his loose sleeve.

Sasuke saw his chance. Maybe at his level of training he couldn’t beat Itachi in a fair fight, but right now, in this moment, Itachi had no way to escape. He could _win_!

Yelling something unintelligible, Sasuke gripped his left wrist with his right hand and began to run at his brother, the _Chidori_ held ready…and abruptly time seemed to slow down.

Sasuke could see clearly the expression on Itachi’s face, the eyes wide with shock and, somehow, a small amount of satisfaction. Around them leaves, twigs and branches from the trees destroyed in the explosion fell to the ground, littering it with half shredded greenery. And out of the corner of his eyes Sasuke spotted a sudden appearance of sunshine blond hair.

Time suddenly seemed to regain its hold of the situation and Sasuke watched in horror as that flash of sunshine blond became none other than Naruto, crashing into the clearing at a reckless speed before coming to a sliding stop. To late Naruto realised that whatever was going on in the clearing he had better not interfere with it, and to late he slid to a stop, halting in a crouch between Sasuke and his target.

Naruto flinched back, his arms raising to try and defend himself from the crackling blue energy coming straight at him and tensed as he felt a rush of heated wind swipe narrowly passed his head and suddenly there was a body half leaning against him, arm clutching tightly around his shoulders. He froze.

At his right there was a sizzling sound and the faint smell of burnt dirt, then nothing but the sound of ragged breathing coming from the person leaning on him. Sasuke. It had to be Sasuke.

Uncertainly, Naruto lifted his head from behind his arms and got a face full of sweat damp black hair. Definitely Sasuke.

“S-Sasuke?” he asked tentatively.

The arm around him tightened even more, squeezing his shoulder painfully.

“You…you _idiot_!” Sasuke said, his voice cracking slightly. The black-haired boy suddenly pushed Naruto away from him and staggered to his feet, glaring down at him, “you _complete idiot_!”

Naruto fell backwards and quickly put his hands out behind him to catch his fall. His right hand came down on warm dirt and Naruto moved his gaze there to see a ragged hole, smoke and the smell of burning dirt wafting from it. Naruto felt his skin crawl; that had been _to_ close.

“Do you even realise what you’ve _done_!?” Sasuke suddenly yelled making Naruto snap his bewildered gaze back to the black-haired boy.

“I’m sorry,” Naruto said, meaning it. “I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t get in front of you on purpose.”

Sasuke’s jaw was clenched tightly, as were the hands at his sides, and his glare, one that Naruto hadn’t seen since they were twelve and Sasuke had seriously been trying to kill him, was aimed straight at Naruto.

“You have _no idea_ what you’ve done,” he said from between clenched teeth, and Naruto found himself resisting the urge to try crawling away from that awful glare.

“W-what I’ve done…?”

“That. Was. Itachi,” Sasuke ground out. “M _y. Brother._ ”

_Itachi? Sasuke’s Brother?_ Naruto had never heard the full story of what had happened between Sasuke and his brother, all he knew was that it had left Sasuke with an obsessive desire to kill the man that Naruto didn’t think was healthy. But if Naruto had interrupted that fight, letting Itachi get away, which he had, judging by the murderous look being directed at him, then he was in a little bit of trouble.

“I didn’t mean…” Naruto began and suddenly found himself being forcibly dragged to his feet and shaken.

“You don’t even realise what you’ve done!” Sasuke half yelled. “Don’t tell me you didn’t mean to!”

Okay, so maybe he was in more than a _little_ trouble; but still, like hell he’d take this whole shaking thing calmly. No one shakes Uzumaki Naruto.

“Damn it, bastard! Stop shaking me!” Naruto attempted to kick Sasuke and instead found himself pushed up against a tree, with the air knocked out of him.

“That man,” Sasuke said from where he was now so close to Naruto’s face their noses where just about touching and he could feel Sasuke’s breath, hot against his face, “killed them all. Killed every man, woman and child in my clan, all of them. He _murdered_ them all, Naruto. _Murdered_ my cousins, my aunts, my uncles… _even our parents_!”

Naruto forgot about trying to regain his breath and settled for staring at Sasuke in horror. _Murdered…?_

“ _Itachi_ , my _older brother_ , _murdered_ our parents and left only _me,_ ” Sasuke’s voice was level now, not shouting, but it now had a quality to it that made Naruto’s skin crawl. “He used his Sharingan, made me _watch_ what he’d done. _Hate me_ he said. _Live miserably, live through the ugliness; learn to survive._ ” Sasuke’s grip on Naruto became painfully strong and he began to seriously fear for the shoulder that Sasuke was grinding against the tree trunk. “So I _lived_. I _lived_ and I _hated_ and I _trained_ and _I almost beat him_ … Then _you_ got in the way. You…” Sasuke’s voice changed from furious to half choked in an instant, “and I almost _killed you_.”

This was why Sasuke was an orphan. _This_ was why, for as long as Naruto could remember, Sasuke had been aiming to kill the one family member he had left. And finally a chance had come for Sasuke to complete his mission, his purpose as an Avenger...and Naruto had ruined it. Had blundered into the situation, half-cocked and unprepared, right into the path of Sasuke _finally_ getting what he needed.

Naruto was suddenly certain; Sasuke must hate him. The black-haired boy was certainly staring at him as if he did. He had to do something. He had to _fix_ this. He couldn’t let Sasuke hate him; not because of this. Weren’t they friends now? Ever since…ever since Naruto had woken from his coma six-months ago they had been _friends;_ they’d reached an understanding, at least. Sasuke was his best friend. He couldn’t lose him, couldn’t lose that, he _refused_.

_Say something!_ he ordered himself, staring into Sasuke’s distant eyes. _Damn it! Say something!_ _ **Anything**_ _! Make it better!_ _Can’t think…can’t lose him…oh Gods, say_ _ **anything!**_

“I-….” there was nothing. Nothing for him to say. No bravado, no angry come-backs; no words at all. He was going to lose the only person who thought of him as an equal. One of the few people he could think of as family.

_Breathe_ , he reminded himself. _Breathe, don’t panic._

“We can chase him, he can’t have gotten that far away.” Good thinking, Itachi was fleeing so between the two of them they had a chance to catch up, to stop Itachi in his tracks and maybe even defeat him. Naruto would help, would do whatever it took.

Sasuke’s distant gaze focused on Naruto sharply and he took a deep breath. Briefly, his eyes flickered in the direction that Itachi had disappeared, and then he focused on Naruto again, his eyes hard.

“No,” he denied, his voice flat. “No, we can’t.”

“B-but…, why the hell _not_?!” Naruto demanded. “I messed this up, Sasuke, but we can fix it! With us both-”

“No!” Sasuke cut over-top of Naruto, “I don’t know why he was here, in this area, or what he was doing to the people here; but I do know that today, this fight, the separation, _all of it_ , was because of _you_. He wants you, and if we chase him we’re only giving him what he wants.”

Sasuke was still visibly angry, but the palm that had been grinding Naruto’s shoulder against the tree behind him had let up its pressure.

“I wish I knew why,” the boy muttered, frustrated. “ _Why_ does he keep coming after you? What does he _want_?”

Naruto took a sharp breath. That was the ultimate question, wasn’t it? Why would Itachi be so focused on Naruto, an idiot who talked to much and to loud; Naruto, who had no family, and few friends; Naruto, the _dobe,_ even in the eyes of his best friend.

“I-uh….”

Sasuke’s eyes were on him again; sharp, searching. They narrowed.

“You know,” he stated. “You know why he wants you, you know _what_ he wants.”

“He…. I….” Sasuke’s anger was coming back, and Naruto couldn’t blame him. Naruto had been hiding the Kyubi from Sasuke, from everyone, for as long as he had known about it. On the one hand, it was part of him, and he accepted that; but, on the other hand, it was a deep, dark, secret. For as long as Naruto could remember the adults of Konoha had treated him like he was nothing, or worse, like he _was_ the demon fox his body held. Deep inside, where Naruto shoved the voices that tried to tell him how useless he was; where he hid the hurt, and the loneliness, was also a voice that warned that everyone would leave him if they knew. Sasuke, Sakura, Konohamaru...they would all back away from him in horror, would run as far as they could, if they only knew.

How could Naruto tell Sasuke, now? How could he tell the other boy that he’d been hiding what he truly was for so long? How could he explain so that Sasuke didn’t leave him?

“Naruto,” the word was growled and the hand on Naruto’s shoulder was tightening again. “ _Why_ does he want you? What are you hiding?”

He couldn’t deny it; that would just make Sasuke angry. And later, if he ever did find out, then it would be worse. But...how could Sasuke ever trust him again if he told him now? How would he ever forgive Naruto for being what he was?

“ _Naruto_!”

Okay. He had to do it, he couldn’t get away from it, he couldn’t get around it. He just had to...just had to rip the band-aid off and take whatever happened. This wasn’t any different than anything else he had dealt with over the years; he had faced it all and come out the other side stronger. He had...he had learned to live with the bad things, had learned to power through them and find the better things on the other side. This wasn’t any different; he could do this.

“I’m the Kyubi,” the words came out far quieter than he had meant them to. He’d meant to be forceful, unashamed; instead the words had caught in his throat.

“What?” Sasuke’s eyebrows raced to meet each other in a puzzled expression.

“I-I’m _the Kyubi_!” Naruto yelled the words this time, half panicked. He had to get the words out. “I’m the nine-tailed fox demon. I-it was sealed inside me when I was a baby.; it’s why I have so much chakra! I-I- _See_!”

Sasuke’s expression was still confused, as if he wasn’t quite comprehending what Naruto was saying.

Naruto abruptly yanked the zip on his jacket down, causing it to hang loosely at his sides, and pulled his mesh shirt up so Sasuke could see his belly.

“The seal shows up when I use the Kyubi’s chakra!” Naruto babbled, and tried to focus and draw the Nine-tails’ chakra out.

_Damn it_ ! He could feel Sasuke’s eyes burning into him; he couldn’t concentrate. “I’m not lying!” he said frantically and focused harder to bring the nine-tails’ suddenly elusive chakra out. _Come on_ ! It was easy to do these days when he was fighting; he’d trained _hard_ to manage it, why wasn’t it working now?

“ _Argh_!” Naruto abruptly gave up on summoning his chakra and decided to show the seal the easy way. Grabbing a kunai from his belt pouch, he shoved his sleeve up and sliced the blade over his arm.

“ _Naruto_! What the hell are you doing!? _Idiot!”_

Naruto blinked in surprise as the blade was suddenly knocked from his hand and his cut arm was taken in a firm grip.

“I-it’s fine,” Naruto said and pulled his shirt up again. “See; the seal. The nine-tails will heal the wound,” he said and Sasuke froze, staring at the seal that had finally begun to glow on Naruto’s belly.

“You’re…”

Naruto pulled his shirt down over his stomach again, “I told you I wasn’t lying.”

“That’s why Itachi wants you,” Sasuke muttered his eyes going wide as he released Naruto’s arm and took a step away from him. “The _fox demon_.”

“I…”

“The fox demon that destroyed Konoha seventeen years ago…” Sasuke eyes were still on Naruto, but his gaze was far away. “All that power...”

Eyes wide with fear, breath hitching, Naruto waited for his world to shatter.


	2. Prologue

## Chapter One

  


Naruto tiredly pushed the door to his apartment open, staggered in the door and then kicked it shut behind him, pausing only to listen for the click of the lock to make sure the door was shut properly before he dragged himself in the direction of his bedroom.

As he moved he dumped first his pack, then his jacket, and then yanked off his shoes and threw them somewhere behind him. His weapon pouch, leg holster, and then his pants followed in the messy trail behind him and, by the time he reached his bed, he was dressed in nothing but his boxers. With an exhausted sigh he let himself fall into bed like a dead weight. He used some of his last strength to pull his blankets up around himself and then shut his eyes to fall into an exhausted sleep.

Or at least he tried to.

After a few minutes of his tired body attempting to explain to his equally tired brain that it was time to shut down for a while, Naruto’s eyes opened again to stare up at his ceiling. Dying sunlight filtered in around the blinds that covered his bedroom windows telling him that it would be dark soon and somewhere beyond the windows he could hear the half muted sounds of end-of-the-day birdsong. He wasn’t paying attention though; his mind was still back at the clearing two days east of Konoha where he’d made the biggest mistake of his short life; or rather the _two_ biggest mistakes of his young life. First he’d messed up the one thing that really meant anything to Sasuke: his mission as an Avenger, and then he’d messed up the one thing that had really meant anything to him _self_ : his friendship with Sasuke.

He’d been such an _idiot_! He was used to people calling him that and he would be the _first_ to admit that he wasn’t the sharpest kunai in the pouch, but for once in his life he really, honestly, _completely_ believed everyone who’d ever said it. He was an idiot, a complete moron. He’d lost the one _actual_ friend he’d managed to earn for himself and he only had himself to blame.

Groaning with a mixture of despair, self-loathing and exhaustion, Naruto rolled over onto his stomach and tried to half-heartedly smother himself with his pillow. What would Sasuke do now? Would he _tell_ anyone? Oh Gods, what if he did? All he had to do was mention it to one person and it would be all over the Village within hours. The older adults already knew, of course, and Naruto was somewhat _used_ to their cold, hate-filled, glares…. But if Sasuke told anyone then it wouldn’t just be the adults staring, glaring and whispering behind his back any more; it would be everyone. _Everyone_. All the people he’d managed to make accept him; all the people that had learned to like him, and even respect him, because they _didn’t know_ …would know.

And he’d already lost Sasuke. He had struggled since he was _twelve_ to get Sasuke to accept him and when finally, _finally_ it looked like the dark-haired boy had given up on his ‘holier then thou’ mentality and admitted that Naruto _might_ not be so bad after all….

Naruto grabbed his pillow, yanked it out from under his head and slammed it down again _over_ his head, resting his hands on it to keep it in place. He didn’t want to lose Sasuke. He’d _never_ admit it to the boy himself, or to anyone else for that matter, but of all the friendships he’d made, _that_ one was his most precious. He’d worked _hard_ for it, damn it!

…But what could he do? He’d messed it up himself; messed it up with no hope of retrieval. He was hopeless. No, he was worse than hopeless. What was the point of working so hard to make friends if he couldn’t keep them? What was the point of getting people to accept him if he was just going to give them reasons not to? He was such an idiot. _Such_ an idiot.

Somewhere amongst his circular thoughts, Naruto’s body finally won its argument with his brain and the two of them shut down on him, dropping him into blessed oblivion.

***

_He could smell it all around him, mixed with the smell of blood. Old blood, new blood. New fire, old ashes. It floated on the wind coating everything within a few miles radius in its stink and a greasy grey residue._

_Flicking stray ashes out of his hair he stared sadly into the distance and at the demon born beast that was killing his people faster almost than he could blink. The Nine-tails. Even as he watched three of the fire wreathed tails lashed out, destroying buildings, forest and people, leaving nothing standing in their wake._

_It made him sick but he couldn’t turn away. It had to be stopped, and stopped soon; he wouldn’t allow this to continue._

_At his side his long time mentor and friend stood and watched with him, his face grim._

“ _Are you ready?”_

“ _Yes,” he answered, not even a hint of hesitation in his voice._

***

“ _Unghhhh…._ ” Naruto woke up slowly and groaned as a beam of early morning sunlight that had somehow managed to sneak in around the sides of one of his blinds smacked him in the face, and more importantly, in the eyes. Taking a firm grip on the edge of his blankets, Naruto pulled them up over his head and rolled over…and ended up on the floor, blinking with sudden wakefulness.

_Chi’._ He hadn’t even noticed he was that close to the edge of the bed. Giving in to the inevitable, Naruto pulled himself to his feet and yawned; then stretched slowly to remove the kinks from sleeping.

If it was any consolation, he thought, it looked like it was going to be a nice day outside. Naruto walked around the bed and peered out from behind one of the blinds; yeah, a really nice day. Training would probably be really fu….

Naruto suddenly chopped the thought off before he could finish it; he’d forgotten. Every morning he trained with Sasuke, but Sasuke wouldn’t want to train with him now. Naruto let the blind slip back over the window and he turned, expression blank, and began to pull on a fresh set of clothes.

No, Sasuke wouldn’t want to train with him now; he wouldn’t even want to _see_ Naruto. That wasn’t Sasuke’s fault, though; _no one_ would want to be around the Nine-tails. it was natural that Sasuke wouldn’t want to see him, even in passing, certainly not while training.

Naruto finished dressing and wandered out of the room in search of breakfast.

No, he wasn’t going to blame Sasuke for not wanting to see him. Actually, he felt sorry for the other boy now that he thought about it. How must Sasuke be feeling right now? How must he have been feeling on the achingly silent and infinitely long journey back to Konoha after he’d found out? Now he was dealing with the knowledge that since he was _twelve_ he’d been unknowingly spending his time with the _Kyubi_. It must have been sickening.

Entering his kitchen, Naruto pulled the carton of milk out of his fridge and dismally sat down at the kitchen table.

He supposed he should just count himself lucky that they’d been on a mission when Sasuke had found out. Sasuke had become pretty strict about getting missions completed so it was probably only Sasuke’s sense of duty that had prevented him from kicking the living hell out of Naruto and leaving him for dead. Yeah…. Naruto absently gulped back a hit of milk from the carton and put back down on the table, hard enough for some of the contents to slosh out over his fingers. He stared at the spilled liquid listlessly. Obviously he’d had a stroke of good luck when it came to Sasuke being so determined to complete their mission. It really must have taken a lot of Sasuke’s self restraint not to do something to Naruto, after all he wasn’t _just_ the Kyubi, he’d messed up Sasuke’s chance to kill Itachi, too.

Naruto stared blankly at the carton of milk for a while then _thunked_ his head down on the tabletop. What was he going to do? He was so used to having Sasuke around! Missions, training, assignments; he did them _all_ with Sasuke. He’d _enjoyed_ it, all that time with Sasuke. But what was he supposed to do now? The realisation was like a punch to the stomach; he wasn’t just losing his best friend, he was losing his entire way of _life_!

_Clunk, clunk, clunk._

Naruto banged his head on the tabletop, the sound seeming to echo in the emptiness of his apartment. What was he going to _do_? _What_?!

He suddenly sat up straight; he could tell Sasuke he’d been lying! Wait, he couldn’t; Sasuke had seen the seal.

_Damn it!_

Naruto let his head clunk back down on the table; he was such a pathetic moron.

Naruto suddenly peeled a single eyelid open and his eye moved to stare at his front door. Someone was knocking on it.

He bolted upright in his chair. _Argh!_ _Sasuke_ _told someone, the news has spread_ _and_ _the mob has arrived to kill me!_

“ _Oi_ , Naruto!”

Naruto’s eyes widened. _Sasuke?_ Sasuke was at his front door? Why? What for? Was he here to get revenge on Naruto by beating him senseless and dumping his body where no one would ever find it? His first instinct had him leaping to his feet. _Run away!!_

“ _Oi_ , Naruto!” Sasuke banged on the door again. “Get out of bed and open the damned door!”

He couldn’t run away, Sasuke was good at tracking, Naruto would be caught before he’d even managed to get out the window. Naruto stared at the door, eyes wide and breathing panicked, and then swallowed. Well, if he was going to be killed by rabid Kyubi hunters it may as well be Sasuke.

Creeping forward, Naruto flicked the lock and pulled the door open a little, peering out.

“S-Sasuke?”

Sasuke glared at him, “about time. You’re late for training, hurry up.”

Naruto’s mouth dropped open, “huh?”

Sasuke huffed a sigh of exasperation and turned to face Naruto fully, “training, Naruto. We’ve done it every morning for the last five years so you can’t have forgotten what it is. Now hurry up and get the hell out here.”

Naruto stared at Sasuke like he’d gone insane.

Sasuke glared back.

“Err… What about your ribs?” Naruto said intelligently.

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly, “A healer-nin looked at them last night. Slightly cracked, but that’s all. I’m bandaged and I’ll have to be careful not to put any pressure on them.”

“…Oh.”

Sasuke stared at Naruto meaningfully, “so are you coming or _not_?”

“B-but…”

“What?”

“You…still want to train with me?” Naruto asked, confused.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, “why wouldn’t I?”

“Because…because of the other day. Itachi…. A-and….”

Sasuke’s gaze went blank and the temperature seemed to suddenly plummet to a level of icy frigidness. _That_ had obviously been the _wrong_ thing to say. He shouldn’t have mentioned it, he _shouldn’t_ have. _Now_ Sasuke was going to kick his arse, he should have just kept quiet and gone along with Sasuke’s act of having forgotten.

Naruto half squeezed his eyes shut and tensed his muscles, expecting to have to fight or flee any time in the next few seconds…and then the room went back to normal temperature and Sasuke sighed.

“It…wasn’t your fault,” he said, his glare so fierce it was a wonder he didn’t burn a hole in the wall he was glaring at. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not mad at you,” he added and transferred his glare back to Naruto, making the blond shiver at its intensity. “Jut _don’t_ bring it up any more. If you do…I won’t be responsible….”

Naruto nodded quickly, in understanding. Sasuke had always become slightly unbalanced whenever his brother was involved; at least now he was making an effort to control it.

They went silent for a while, Sasuke’s gaze having moved back to the wall and Naruto staring at the floor. Naruto was trying not to ask. Trying not to…though he knew he had to. Stealing himself, he looked up quickly at Sasuke then let his gaze settle somewhere around the other boys’ knees.

“Uhm….” Naruto paused then forced himself to continue. “W-what…about the Kyubi?”

And instantly the mood between them changed. The last of the icy brooding feeling Sasuke had been projecting melted as he moved his glare from the wall to Naruto’s face, completely surprised.

“The Kyubi? _Baka_ , I don’t care about that,” his expression turned to an irritated scowl. “Now let’s hurry up and go.”

And he turned and walked off.

_Don’t…care…?_ He didn’t _care_ about ‘that’? What the hell was _that_ supposed to mean?!

“ _Oi_!!” Naruto yelled and, diving back into his apartment quickly to grab his weapons, he sped out the door and after Sasuke. “Damn it, Sasuke! Wait up!”

“Try moving faster, _B_ _aka,_ ” Sasuke called back and Naruto frowned, putting in a slight burst of speed as he tied his weapons pouch around his waist.

“What do you mean you ‘don’t care’?!” Naruto demanded as soon as he caught up to Sasuke and began to wind the bandages for his leg holster round his right thigh, hopping on one foot as he tried to keep up with Sasuke at the same time.

Sasuke stopped walking to let the other get his equipment on, “just what I said. I don’t care.”

“You seemed to care when I _told_ you,” Naruto snapped.

Sasuke blinked and then glared at Naruto fixedly. “Because of Itachi,” he growled.

“What?”

“Because that’s why Itachi _wants_ you,” Sasuke said, “I wanted to know why, it was just a shock to find out.”

Naruto finished tying the bandage securely and hooked his leg holster onto his belt. “And so other than that, you don’t care?” he asked incredulously.

“No,” Sasuke said and watched Naruto tie the holster on backwards, figure _out_ it was backwards, untie it, and then tie it on backwards again. “I don’t see why I should.”

Naruto looked up from the stupid holster and glared at Sasuke. “But I’m the _Kyubi,_ ” he stressed the word as much as possible.

Sasuke frowned in annoyance, “you’re Naruto.”

Naruto frowned back. “You don’t _believe_ me,” he accused, completely forgetting that he’d been wishing he could convince Sasuke of that just a few minutes before hand.

“I believe you,” Sasuke responded. “But you’re no different today than you were a week ago.”

“But…”

Sasuke sighed in exasperation. “Do you _want_ me to hate you?” he demanded.

“ _ **No**_!!” Naruto dropped his leg holster in favour of grabbing Sasuke by the front of the shirt and shaking him slightly. “No! Definitely not!” he suddenly realised what he was doing and released Sasuke’s shirt and picked up the holster, going back into battle with it and his belt. “I just…don’t understand why you don’t,”  he said quietly. “ _Everyone_ hates the Nine-tails.”

Finally getting annoyed with Naruto’s struggles with the leg holster, Sasuke batted Naruto’s hands out of the way and quickly fixed it onto the belt himself.

“My brother, Itachi, murdered my family and my entire clan,” he stated in a low voice, tying the holster tightly with achingly precise and controlled motions, “do you hate me for that?”

Naruto stared at him in shock, “no! Of course not! That’d be stupid, hating you for what that bastard did!”

Sasuke stepped away from Naruto, shoved his balled-up hands in his pockets and looked at the other boy intently. “Then why should I hate you for what the Kyubi did?” he asked, then turned away and continued walking. “Hurry up, all this pointless talking is wasting training time.”

Naruto stood still and watched Sasuke as he walked away. Sasuke…didn’t hate him for being the Kyubi? He really _didn’t_ hate him?

Bending down, Naruto affixed the final strap of the leg holster around his thigh and quickly rubbed at his face, determined that he would _not_ start crying. Not in front of Sasuke, at least. Maybe later...but not now.

“Naruto! Hurry _up_!” Sasuke yelled, and Naruto grinned. 

“I’ll go as fast as I feel like, bastard!” he yelled back and jogged to catch up.

***

Kick, punch, kick, dodge to the left, jump, kick, spin, get kicked in the chest and thrown halfway across the clearing. Okay, that last bit hadn’t been part of the plan, but hey! Naruto could adapt.

“Naruto!” Sasuke growled as he walked over to where Naruto was picking himself up off the ground and shaking his head to clear his vision. “I’m injured, not dying. If you don’t attack me properly then I’m going to beat you.”

“ _Chi’_.” Naruto moved his headband back onto his forehead from where it had slipped down to obscure half his eyesight, and glared up at his training partner. “Easy for _you_ to say. _You_ don’t have to make sure you don’t hit me in the wrong place.”

“Get up,” Sasuke smirked and walked a few steps back from Naruto.

“Gee, hold your horses, bastard,” Naruto grumbled as he pulled himself to his feet and then threw himself at Sasuke in an abrupt attack.

Not as strong of an attack as he would normally have used, though. Naruto had already resigned himself to another loss today; regardless of what Sasuke said, Naruto just couldn’t bring himself to use an all-out attack against the black-haired boy when he _knew_ the other’s ribs were injured. Ribs were tricky injuries, just a little to much force in the wrong place and bruised ribs became cracked ones, and cracked ribs became broken; and broken ribs were not good.

So, giving in to his inevitable loss for the day, Naruto slowed down the pace of the fight and began to talk.

“…well, I gather you got home all right after we reported the mission,” Naruto began babbling on the first subject in his head since the subject wouldn’t really matter; Sasuke never had listened to his babble. “Sorry I disappeared so fast, I know I should have helped you to the hospital but I was so dead tired I just wanted to sleep. I barely made it to bed, almost had to sleep on the floor, not that that’s bad or anything, it’s a pretty good floor, but it would have been cold and I probably would have woken up with one _hell_ of a crick in my neck.”

Naruto paused his monologue to dodge an attack and glared over at Sasuke. The black-haired boy was breathing harder than he should have been and Naruto’s practised eye noticed the little signs that said that his ribs were paining him. Time to stop for lunch soon, then.

“Besides,” he continued talking where he’d left off, “I had the most bizarre dream last night. I’d hate to think what sleeping on the _floor_ would have inspired.”

At the mention of dreams, Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly and he hit Naruto a little harder than necessary. Oops, wrong subject again. Naruto mentally cursed himself, he really should learn to think before he opened his mouth; of _course_ dreams would be a taboo subject around Sasuke, especially after he’d had an encounter with his brother.

Naruto bit his tongue in a brief moment of thought as he ducked a kick aimed at his head, and then rolled out of the way. Sasuke hadn’t actually _said_ to not talk about dreams, so really Naruto couldn’t be blamed for bringing them up; and he wouldn’t bring up _Sasuke’s_ dreams, just his own. Maybe if the other boy knew he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get a decent night sleep, it would help him a little.

So he ploughed in, boots and all.

“Of course, it’s not like I don’t _always_ have…weird dreams. Normally it’s just about the villagers though,” and oh, how it hurt to wake in the morning, his pillow slightly soggy from tears, to find that reality was just as cruel as his dreams could be. “Last night was bizarre because I dreamed about the Nine-Tails,” Naruto stopped moving as Sasuke did the same.

The black-haired boy was looking at him with an odd expression. Well, Naruto guessed that proved that for once the other had been listening to him.

“You had a dream…about the Kyubi?” Sasuke asked, looking curious despite himself.

“Yeah,” Naruto put a hand behind his head and looked at the sky in thought. When he remembered the dream it almost seemed like he was back in it again with the taste of blood and ashes on his lips. “It was destroying the village,” he explained softly, “there was fire, and blood, everywhere. And I could feel it, the Kyubi’s fierce joy of killing; killing anything and everything that came in its path. It enjoyed the screams, it enjoyed the destruction it was causing…”

Naruto trailed off and then shook his head slightly, ripping his gaze away from the sky to look at Sasuke. The boy was staring at him and Naruto laughed nervously, catching on the first thing that came into his mind to try and dispel the disquieting feelings from himself, as well as to get rid of the expression on Sasuke’s face.

“Bit of a stupid dream really. I bet it didn’t mean anything,” he said cheerfully. “Seriously, though, you’d think I’d dream about something relevant, right? I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d had a dream of random _Chidori_ flying at me, or something.”

That knocked the odd expression off Sasuke’s face, alright. It also dropped the atmosphere to below subzero temperatures and made Naruto wonder if he just _liked_ having Sasuke mad at him.

“Err… Not that…that would…,” Naruto began, wishing he could erase what he’d just said.

“Shut up, Naruto,” Sasuke’s expression was hard again, but his eyes were turned inwards, remembering again. 

Well, _fuck_.

“ _Sasuke-kun! Naruto!_ ”

The call pulled both boys out of their thoughts and they looked up as Sakura bounced into the clearing, a smile on her face so wide it was impossible for Naruto not to smile back.

“Sakura-chan!”

“Iruka-Sensei told me the two of you were back,” she began as she came to a stop; completely oblivious to the tension Sasuke was still projecting, “so I figured we could have lunch today!”

“Yes! Let’s have…”

“No ramen!” Sakura interrupted quickly and glared at Naruto briefly before turning back to Sasuke, “Sasuke-kun, what do you want?”

Sasuke had turned his gaze back to Naruto, or at least in Naruto’s general direction since his eyes were still only half focused.

“I don’t care,” he said and Sakura deflated slightly.

“Oh, well how about sandwiches, or something?” she asked.

Naruto made a face, “why not ramen?”

“We _always_ have ramen,” Sakura snapped. “Today we’ll have sandwiches. Come on.”

Naruto sighed theatrically and followed along behind the pink haired girl as she marched them out of the clearing, pausing only to make sure Sasuke was following and wasn’t still spacing-out.

He _was_ still spacing-out slightly, but he was also following so Naruto didn’t bother calling attention to it. It was his fault Sasuke was spacing anyway, what had he told himself a few minutes ago? Learn to think before he spoke? Obviously he hadn’t been listening.

It didn’t take them long to get to whichever shop Sakura had decided on and soon the three of them were sitting quietly at an outside table with their lunch. No one was eating though; the tension oozing from Sasuke while he dwelt on his own thoughts had finally punctured Sakura’s awareness and she was alternately glaring at Naruto and staring at Sasuke with concern.

Naruto sighed and took a bite of his sandwich; why did she always decide it was _his_ fault?

“Sasuke-kun?” Sakura said after a while and smiled slightly when he transferred his gaze from his food to her. “What’s wrong? You seem a bit…” she paused, searching for a word and Naruto inserted a few.

“Gloomy, depressing, boring, uptight, self-absorbed, _i_ _tai_!” Sakura had kicked him under the table.

“ _Preoccupied,_ ” Sakura said over Naruto’s exclamation of pain and ignored the blond completely as he clutched at his shin, bemoaning the fates.

Sasuke’s eyes flicked to Naruto and his reflective expression cleared slightly. A small, quickly squashed, smile tugged at his lips before he looked back at Sakura.

“I’m fine,” he said and finally picked up one of his sandwiches. “ _Oi_ , _dobe_. Shut the hell up, you’re making a scene.”

Naruto pulled his leg up onto his seat with him and clutched his shin to his chest protectively, “why don’t you shut up, bastard!”

“Because I’m not attracting attention,” he said between bites on his food, “you are.”

“Well it’s _your_ fault!” Naruto returned and Sasuke lifted an eyebrow at him.

“I didn’t kick you.”

“You’re the reason I got kicked!”

“Oh, Naruto,” Sakura intervened, a splash of pink across her cheeks the only indication that Naruto’s increasingly loud exclamations were embarrassing her half to death. “Just shut up!” she followed the order with a sound smack to his head and Naruto freed one hand from his shin to clutch at his new injury.

“But Sakura-chaaaaan…”

“Just eat your lunch and shut up, _dobe,_ ” Sasuke interrupted him and Naruto glared, but followed the orders. But he did it because _he_ wanted to, and not because Sasuke said so; he was hungry.

***

Sakura had left twenty minutes later to go back to her classes at the academy and that had left Naruto at a loss for what to do next. He and Sasuke were always teamed for missions so until Sasuke’s ribs were healed they wouldn’t have any. Likewise, the morning’s training was probably enough, maybe even to _much_ , movement for aforementioned ribs and so they couldn’t train for the afternoon. What on earth was there left to do?

He groaned the same question out loud and Sasuke glared at him. Not a real glare, Naruto noted, just the general, all-purpose glare that he directed at people by default.

“I’m going home,” he stated and stood up.

Naruto jumped to his feet to follow, “what’re you going to do?”

“Train,” Sasuke said shortly and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Naruto frowned, “you shouldn’t put any more strain on your ribs, ass-hole. I want to get back to doing missions sometime this century.”

“ _Baka,_ ” Sasuke directed a mocking glare at Naruto this time. “There’s more to training than fighting.”

“I know that!” Naruto glared fiercely and Sasuke smirked back.

“Sure,” he replied easily.

“Bastard!” Naruto jumped in front of Sasuke and glared at him, “don’t mock me! Now what _are_ you going to do?”

“ _Chi_ ’.” Sasuke stepped around Naruto and looked back over his shoulder, “I’ve got some scrolls I’ve wanted to study but haven’t had the time, may as well do it now while I’ve got nothing else to do.”

“Oh,” Naruto paused in thought and then ran a few steps to catch up, “can I come?”

Sasuke’s expression turned into a frown instantly, “you’ll get in the way.”

“I will _not_! You can do all your studying in a different room for all I care; I just want to see what kind of scrolls you have. I bet you have some cool ones, right?” he turned, overwhelmingly enthusiastic without noticing and Sasuke stared at the bouncing boy beside him aghast. “The only scrolls I get to look at are what I can  get Iruka-Sensei to give me, and anything I’m assigned, but you have your entire families collection, right!?”

Sasuke looked away slightly, “yeah.”

“So can I come look? Please? I’ll be quiet, _promise_.”

Sasuke frowned and looked back at Naruto, “you’ll be quiet?”

Naruto glared, “I can be quiet!”

Sasuke snorted, but shrugged and turned to walk away as he spoke, “Hn. Fine.”

“Yatta!” Naruto bounced around and almost missed the rest of Sasuke’s sentence.

“But no experimenting! I’ll be damned if you blow my house up because you can’t get a simple jutsu right.”

“Okay!” It was a small price to pay; Naruto even let the insult slide. It wasn’t everyday someone like Naruto got to have a look at a collection of scrolls like the Uchiha clan would have.

Ignoring Sasuke’s slightly annoyed look, Naruto trailed along behind the other boy, mimicking out to himself the kinds of cool new jutsu he was going to learn; he hoped Sasuke wouldn’t be to stingy with them, maybe he’d be able to borrow a few.

Sighing, Sasuke hid an amused smile and resigned himself to a noisy afternoon.


	3. Chapter 02

## Chapter Two

  


Sunlight.

Streaming in his window.

Blinding.

Him.

_Argh_!

Naruto dived to the right and immediately fell to the floor and huddled with his blanket over his head. Who the _hell_ had forgotten to shut the blinds when he went to sleep last night? Naruto weighed the options….

Damn, it was his _own_ fault.

After a while he sighed and struggled his way out of the killer blanket that was attempting to take revenge for the night of restless sleep Naruto had put it through and then, hurling the offensive thing at his bed where it spitefully fell down the other side to lay between the bed and the wall, Naruto scrubbed at his face to wake up and began searching for clothing.

He managed to sleepily put his black mesh T-shirt on backwards only once before getting it on right, and paid slightly more attention to his pants when he put them on, getting it right the first time.

Stifling a yawn, Naruto cast another, annoyed, look back at his wilful blanket and then decided to leave it; may the stupid thing enjoy its day on the floor, he decided and wandered to the bathroom to wash his face.

A while later a still half sleepy Naruto sat at his kitchen table staring gloomily into his bowl of cereal. He had been hoping to sleep-in this morning, since he wasn’t going to be training with Sasuke, but obviously the fates, the blinds in his room, his blanket and yes, even this cereal, were against him. Yawning, Naruto slurped the last mouthful of milk from the bottom of the bowl and then dumped the empty dish into the sink.

He supposed it didn’t matter much that he _couldn’t_ sleep-in, he’d been having another bizarre dream about the nine-tails anyway so, frankly, he was happy to be awake; and he was meeting up with Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon that morning to celebrate the three graduating from the academy.

Naruto smirked as he grabbed his weapons from the table, put them on quickly and then scooped up his forehead protector and tied it on as he walked out his front door. If Konohamaru and his friends were anywhere as excited as _he_ had been when he’d first graduated, then they’d probably already be up, alert and waiting for him, even though he hadn’t said he’d show up for another hour or so yet.

Locking his door behind him, Naruto walked quickly through the streets of Konoha and to Konohamaru’s chosen meeting place; his smirk only grew wider when he arrived to find all three twelve-year-olds ready and waiting, talking excitedly amongst themselves.

“Yo! Konohamaru!” Naruto waved a greeting to the boy and his friends as he approached and received an enthusiastic set of waves in return. “I thought you’d be here early,” Naruto said as he reached them, putting his hands behind his head as he spoke.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Konohamaru answered, his eyes bright. “I just kept wondering what today was going to be like, and what our new Sensei would be like, and what our training would be like, and before I knew it the sun was coming up!”

Naruto laughed, “just make sure you don’t go to sleep during your group assignments. What time do you have to be there anyway?”

When Naruto had graduated they’d had to be there early in the morning, Konohamaru and his friends had sounded like they’d have most of the morning to kill when he’d spoken to them briefly yesterday, though.

“An hour before noon,” Moegi said and then turned to Konohamaru. “And don’t _forget,_ ” she said sternly.

“I _won’t,_ ” Konohamaru answered, pouting slightly. Obviously this was what they’d been talking about before Naruto had arrived.

“Why bother telling him that?” Naruto said lazily and leaned against a nearby tree, “you can just remind him at the proper time.”

“Nope. Can’t,” she said and grimaced. “I have to help at home this morning, Udon is helping. We were just here until you showed up.”

Naruto blinked, “you have to work on your graduation day? _Ouch_.”

“Hmph,” she made the sound of annoyance and then grabbed Udon by the back of his shirt and started dragging him away down the street. “I’ll see you later, Naruto-niichan! Konohamaru-chan, don’t be late!”

Konohamaru growled after her and Naruto quickly choked back a chuckle that would have earned him a glare just as fierce if Konohamaru noticed it.

“Stop laughing at me,” Konohamaru said and turned his glare on Naruto. Naruto guessed he hadn’t hidden his chuckle to well then.

“I’m not laughing at you,” Naruto said and stood up straighter. “I’m laughing with you.”

“I’m _not_ laughing,” the boy said, glaring harder.

Naruto waved a hand negligently, “details; come on, I’ll buy you some ramen.”

At the mention of ramen Konohamaru dropped his glare, “really? You’ll _really_ buy me ramen!?”

It was Naruto’s turn to glare. “Don’t say it like it never happens,” he grouched. “Only one bowl though, I can’t afford more.”

Konohamaru turned a blazing grin on Naruto and then the two of them wandered off in search of Naruto’s favourite ramen place.

***

The morning went by quickly and it wasn’t long before Naruto was waving goodbye to Konohamaru as the boy raced to the academy; late, despite how much he’d protested earlier that he wouldn’t be.

Standing in the centre of the road after Konohamaru had disappeared from sight, Naruto scratched the back of his head and tried to decide what to do next. After a while, and a few curses from the people he was getting in the way of, Naruto began to walk randomly, still deep in contemplative thought.

Since he’d missed morning training, he should _probably_ go train…but that was boring on his own, so really he should go and see if he could find Sasuke.

But on the other hand, Sasuke had already done all his training for the morning and would probably be doing something he couldn’t do with Naruto around like he normally was, so it’d be rude for Naruto to interrupt him…. Not that Naruto _cared_ if he were being rude to that bastard or not, but he supposed he should let Sasuke have at least _one_ Naruto free day. At the thought his eyes flickered briefly, if anyone had been watching him they probably wouldn’t even have noticed the expression as he covered it up almost immediately. Naruto had other reasons not to go seeking out Sasuke at the first opportunity.

The other day he’d gotten a taste of what it would be like to lose someone so close to him…. He didn’t want to _ever_ feel that again. Just because Sasuke was acting like everything was fine between them, as if being the Kyubi and messing up his chance to defeat Itachi wasn’t that big a deal. Naruto _knew_ Sasuke. He’d had years to figure out the way Sasuke thought and, while what the dark-haired boy had said might have been _true,_ it didn’t change the fact that over the last day or two, when Sasuke hadn’t thought Naruto was watching, the blond had seen this _expression_ in the other boys’ eyes. It was a dark look, that made Naruto shiver to think about it, and while Naruto wasn’t _exactly_ sure what was going on in Sasuke’s head when his eyes looked like that…he didn’t think he wanted to find out. And he didn’t want to lose his friend; his _best_ friend.

His restless sleep the night before had been caused by just this subject and Naruto’s mind slowly wandered back to the last coherent thought he’d had before exhaustion and weird dreams had swallowed him.

He had to separate himself from Sasuke.

It had _hurt_ so much when he’d thought the dark-haired boy had hated him; it had hurt so much it had bordered on physical pain. He didn’t want to feel like that again. Sure, _for now_ Sasuke was still around, the danger of that situation had been averted; but what about next time? And he _knew_ there’d be a next time. His friendship with Sasuke was precious, and hard-won; but it was also hard to hold on to. They never mentioned it but their friendship was something of a tightrope act between true friendship and complete rivalry, and who knew when one of them would slip? Before now it hadn’t even occurred to Naruto that one of them _would_ , but now…. He wouldn’t be able to bare it.

So his only choice was to separate himself from the other boy. He wouldn’t be able to do it fast; Sasuke wasn’t stupid, he’d figure out fairly quickly that something was up if Naruto suddenly started avoiding him.

Lost deeply in his thoughts, it took Naruto a few moments to realise that he could hear the voice of the person he was thinking about and he looked up in surprise, spotting the back of Sasuke’s head immediately. The black-haired boy was talking to Sakura, who was obviously on her lunch break, and Naruto bit his lower lip lightly.

Well it was now or never; time to begin the process of separation.

Pretending like he hadn’t even seen them, Naruto changed the direction of his steps, aiming to walk passed them on the other side of the road while apparently staring off into space. If he didn’t do anything flamboyant or Naruto-ish, they wouldn’t even notice him.

Or at least he’d thought so.

Letting his feet carry him as far away from the two as possible, Naruto caught the tail end of their conversation.

“…o why don’t we go out to lunch?” Sakura was saying as Naruto got within hearing range and he flinched.

“…No,” Sasuke replied, typically. “I’m busy.”

“Doing what? Do you need help? I can use my lunch break to help you out.”

“Hn.”

It was at that moment that Naruto realised he’d been caught. All his ninja instincts screamed at him as he suddenly felt eyes burning into the back of his head and a moment later he realised he had ground to a halt and begun to turn around; such was the pull of an Uchiha’s desperate glare.

“I don’t need help. I’m going to be training with Naruto,” Sasuke lied to Sakura calmly, and walked passed her and to join Naruto on the other side of the street. As he approached, Sasuke’s eyes bored into Naruto’s in such a way that threatened great bodily harm if Naruto didn’t play along.

Naruto swallowed nervously and then did the only thing he could do; he played along.

“ _There_ you are, bastard! I’ve been looking all over,” he could feel Sakura’s glare on him. Damn, he was so going to be in trouble now.

“Hn,” Sasuke replied; his glare relaxing slightly as he realised his escape was assured. “Follow me.”

Naruto glared at Sasuke’s quickly retreating back and then turned to wave goodbye to Sakura and was promptly snubbed.

_Damn_. Another black mark against him in Sakura’s book; once again because of Sasuke. Damn that guy was lucky Naruto considered him a friend or Naruto would be seriously pissed at him right now.

***

“…Thanks.”

Naruto looked up, startled at the sound of Sasuke’s low statement.

“What?” _Play dumb, maybe I didn’t hear right._

“I said ‘thanks’,” Sasuke repeatedly irritably and Naruto blinked at him.

Sasuke glared back, “stop that.”

“But…”

Sasuke’s glare grew fiercer, “shut up and walk faster.”

Naruto blinked again and then glared and hurried to catch up with Sasuke, who had increased his pace.

“I thought making me follow you was a trick to get Sakura to leave you alone, why the hell should I _keep_ following you?” he demanded.

Sasuke smirked and looked at Naruto over his shoulder, “if you don’t want to follow me then why _are_ you?”

“Because you _said_ to and I want to know why!”

“Hn.”

Was it just him or did that sound more like a half swallowed sound of amusement instead of the dismissive sound it was supposed to be passed off as?

“Well?!”

“I’m going to study my scrolls again. I thought you’d want to continue where you left off yesterday.”

Naruto’s expression changed instantly and he raced ahead of Sasuke so he could look at him properly, “ _r_ _eally?_ ”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely!” _Damn you. How can I avoid you if you’re giving me reasons to hang around?!_ “The one on fire jutsu I was reading yesterday was really interesting. Though I still can’t figure out how you were able to use some of them when we were only twelve.”

“Fire element jutsu are a speciality of the Uchiha family,” Sasuke replied and Naruto glared at him.

“Could your family do _everything_ or something?” he grouched.

Sasuke smirked, “pretty much.”

“Stop being such an arrogant bastard!” Naruto exclaimed and turned away from Sasuke, crossing his arms over his chest. _Arrogant son-of-a-…._ As Naruto stomped off down the road, determined not to talk to Sasuke any more that day unless he _absolutely_ had to, he could have sworn he heard Sasuke choke back another laugh.

***

_Smoke. Again._

_Naruto did his best not to inhale as the strong scents of smoke, ash, burning wood, burning flesh and blood assaulted him; oh Kami he hated this._

_His breathing was shallow to avoid the smells and smoke around him and when he finally got a little used to it and looked around him, he wished he hadn’t. Around him pieces of people, or things that might once have been people, littered the ground. Around his feet the hard, half burnt earth was stained dark with the letting of blood and it clung to him along with the scent of death as he moved._

_Picking his steps carefully, Naruto tried not to accidentally step on what might have once been someone he knew and steeled himself, holding back his grief, and his anger. He had to be calm now, he couldn’t let his emotions run away from him; and he couldn’t look away. He wanted to; he **desperately** wanted to look away from the visions of destruction that littered his path, but he couldn’t, and he wouldn’t. He owed it to them, the people that had risked and lost their lives in this seemingly hopeless fight. He would avenge them; or die trying._

_He took a step forward and the world seemed to melt and shift around him. He looked up and into dark, fire wreathed eyes that seemed to bore into his soul and strip it bare, leaving him raw and shivering._

_Fear consumed him in that moment as he stared into those eyes; the power, the malice behind them was too much; it was over whelming. He had to run away, he had to flee or he, too, would be slaughtered like all those that lay around him._

_As Naruto stared in terror up into those eyes, the creature, the_ _**Kyubi,** _ _bent slightly and brought his face down to peer at the tiny thing before him and its lips pulled back into a snarl revealing sharp canines stained with the blood of the dead that littered the ground. Slowly it let out a breath and Naruto’s shirt flapped around his arms as hot, death laden air whirled passed him. Naruto was frozen in place, still in the grip of his fear as those teeth came towards him, parting as they came closer._

***

“ _ **Aaahhhhhhhhhh**_!!”

“Naruto! Snap out of it!”

Naruto’s eyes went wide in shock as his head snapped to the side and sharp pain throbbed through the left side of his face. Breathing heavily, he slowly lifted his hand and tentatively touched his cheek, which was now hot and throbbing.

“Naruto?”

Someone had _hit_ him.

“ _Naruto_.”

Slowly, Naruto turned his head and stared blankly at Sasuke.

“Idiot, what the hell is your problem, I said snap out of it. I’ll hit you again,” the black-haired boy warned.

Naruto blinked and then focused on Sasuke. He looked worried.

“What are you…?” Naruto began and then amended his question as he finally took in his surroundings and realised he was in Sasuke’s room, “why am I here?”

The worried expression melted off Sasuke’s face immediately and he sat back and glared at Naruto with irritation, “you fell asleep on the floor and I couldn’t wake you, so I brought you in here to get you out of the way.”

“Oh…” Naruto rubbed at his sore cheek. The lights were on and Naruto could see through a gap in the curtains that it was pitch black outside. How long had he slept? “Why did you hit me?” he asked grouchily.

Sasuke’s lips tightened.

“You were having a nightmare and weren’t waking up.” _And I scared you,_ Naruto added mentally as he again took in the barely perceptible expression on Sasuke’s face.

“You didn’t have to hit me,” Naruto pouted and rubbed his cheek again for emphasis.

“Fine. Next time you can keep sleeping.”

An expression of terror flitted over Naruto’s face before he could hide it and Sasuke’s intense glare lightened slightly.

“ _Baka_. Are you all right?”

“Of course!” Naruto said, a little to quickly, and he finally sat up straight in the bed and glared, “except for the massive bruise I’m going to have now.”

“Hn,” Sasuke said, obviously unconvinced; but he stood up anyway, allowing Naruto to climb out of the bed, “like it’ll last long.”

Naruto flinched slightly at the roundabout mention of the Nine-tails but once again covered it up by grinning and poking his tongue out at the other boy. “You’re just jealous,” he taunted.

“Hn,” again Sasuke was clearly unconvinced.

“Man! I’m so hungry! Don’t suppose you have any food, do you?” Naruto asked as cheerfully as he could and stretched to get the kinks out of his back.

“I made dinner,” Sasuke said, giving Naruto another look over before leading the way from the bedroom and to the other end of the house, and to the kitchen.

“Really? What did you make?” Naruto put a bounce in his step and followed along behind Sasuke who didn’t bother to answer the question. “Mmmm, I can smell it.” Rice and fish; basic food but more than his normal meal of ramen.

“Stop smelling it and eat it, _dobe_.” Sasuke said and sat down at the low table and picked up his chopsticks.

“Don’t call me that, bastard.” Naruto said and sunk down beside him, picking up his own chopsticks.

“Hn.”

Naruto finished his first mouthful and glared, “can’t you say _anything_ other than that?”

“Hn,” Sasuke ignored Naruto’s protest and carried on eating.

“Bastard,” Naruto threw some rice at him.

Slowly, Sasuke stopped eating and turned to look first at the grains of rice sitting innocently on his arm and shoulder, and then switched his gaze to Naruto. Naruto smirked and looked at a boring painting on the wall of some forest scenery. He could positively _feel_ the hot glare that was burning into the back of his head, but he ignored it completely and carried on eating. The food was kind of good, who would’ve thought.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence and Naruto’s thoughts drifted back to the dream he’d had. How embarrassing, really, to have had a nightmare, not just in Sasuke’s house, but where Sasuke could _see_ him. He wondered briefly if he’d said anything out loud as he’d struggled in the grips of his dream.

The dream had been almost identical to the one he’d had the night before. Carefully he suppressed a shudder as he remembered the feeling of fear and helplessness that had come over him seeing the Nine-tails so close to him. Somehow, he could still feel the hot breath of the creature burning over his skin and permeating his clothing with its stench. It didn’t feel like that when he spoke with the Nine-tails in his mind. The Kyubi was evil, he knew that; it delighted in death, destruction and the feel of pure power running through its veins…but somehow he’d never felt real _fear_ of the creature that lived within him. But in the dream he’d known fear; worse than that, he’d known true terror.

What the hell did it _mean_?! Were his dreams the Kyubi’s way of attempting to intimidate him? Or was it his own fears manifesting themselves into a form he could recognise while sleeping? Maybe it was a mix of both?

“ _Oi_ , _dobe_. Hurry up and finish, I want to do the dishes.”

“Huh?” Naruto’s eyes refocused and he turned an uncomprehending stare on Sasuke.

“Eat. Now,” Sasuke said shortly and Naruto stared down at the half bowl of rice in his hands.

“Oh, right,” bending his mind to his task Naruto avoided Sasuke’s piercing look and finished the last of his dinner in record time. “There, all done,” he presented the dirty dishes to Sasuke with a grin and the other boy took them.

“Good, now come help me.”

“What? Why do I have to help?” Naruto protested as Sasuke walked across the room and dumped the dishes in the sink.

“You used them, you can help clean them,” Sasuke replied.

Grumbling, Naruto levered himself off of the floor and slouched after the other boy. He _hated_ doing dishes. Luckily there weren’t many of them and they finished in only a few minutes.

“What time is it?” Naruto asked and leaned back against the counter, watching Sasuke as he put the newly washed and dried dishes away.

“Late,” Sasuke replied, helpfully. “You can use the guest room down the hall from mine; there’s no point wandering around outside now.”

Naruto skilfully hid a twitch. _Damn it. The plan was to_ _ **separate**_ _myself from Sasuke,_ _this is_ not _separation._

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind…”

“Don’t argue, _dobe,_ ” Sasuke didn’t even bother to look at him, simply walked out of the room.

This time Naruto did twitch. _Stubborn bastard_. Naruto followed him.

“I’m a big boy now, you know. I _can_ get home safely, even if it _is_ a little dark out,” leading the way down the hall, Sasuke walked into the lounge where he carefully sat down on a mound of cushions, mindful of his ribs, and picked up one of the scrolls he’d been studying.

“What’s the point?” Sasuke answered, infuriatingly logical, “you’ll end up here tomorrow morning anyway.”

“Yeah, but…”

Sasuke finally looked over at him, his expression irritated, “but?”

Naruto glared and flopped down onto the floor and grabbed the scroll he’d gone to sleep over earlier, “oh fine. I don’t care.”

***

“ _Oi, Ero-Sensei.” Naruto waited but got no response._

“ _O~i, Ero-Sensei!” Still no response. He sighed._

“ _Jiraiya-Sensei.”_

_The man looked up from his scroll and looked at Naruto as if he’d only just heard him._

“ _Oh, I didn’t see you there, brat. What do you want?”_

_Naruto glared at him, then grinned. “Teach me something interesting today.”_

_The white haired man smiled slightly and then began to look thoughtful, “Hmmm…No, you know that already. Hn…No, that’s too much for you. How about… Oh, no; you’d just mess that up…”_

_Naruto glared at the white-haired man who finally turned and rubbed the top of his head, messing up his hair and making his forehead protector slip down over one eye._

“ _Okay! I’ll teach you my most secret, specialized, and perfect technique!”_

“ _No.” Naruto pushed his protector back into place and pushed his fringe back into place, “Teach me a_ _ **real**_ _Justu, I have no use to learn to_ _ **peep**_ _.”_

_The man deflated slightly, “Well if you’re going to be that way about it, I won’t **ever** offer to teach it to you again!”_

_Naruto’s expression went flat, “I don’t **want** too. Teach me something **good**.”_

“ _Hmph, fine. How about…”_

***

Naruto blinked his eyes open and yawned. _Mmmm_ …. Good, no blinding sunlight this morning.

Stretching, Naruto’s arm smacked into a wall at his right, where there shouldn’t _be_ a wall, and he instantly sat up. _Where the hell…?_ Oh right, he was at Sasuke’s. He fell back against his pillow and snuggled down under the blankets. _Mmmm…toasty warm._

He managed to lie still for a full minute before he sighed and sat up again. It was really hard to concentrate on sleeping in when the idea of Sasuke slamming the door open and kicking him out of bed was a viable possibility. Besides, the sun was already up so it was only a matter of time; he may as well get up now and save himself the fight that would ensue.

Yawning again, Naruto rolled out of bed and quickly pulled his clothes on, eyeing the door the entire time. It hadn’t been flung open yet, it was making him a little paranoid.

Stretching after he’d pulled his clothes on, Naruto decided to obey the call of his empty stomach and went in search of food, or Sasuke. Both really.

He found Sasuke first.

Walking down the hallway, he glanced through Sasuke’s open bedroom door as he passed it and saw the black-haired boy sitting, half dressed, outside on his room’s small balcony. He deviated his steps to take him there instead, keeping quiet as it became apparent that the boy was meditating, or something.

It took a full five minutes of watching before Naruto realised that Sasuke was doing something other than simply staring at the inside of his eyelids. When Naruto had walked out there, Sasuke’s breathing had been short, taking the stress away from his ribs, but now he was taking more natural breaths; and he was sitting up straighter, his figure no longer slightly hunched over as he attempted to pretend that his sides weren’t the mother of all that was painful. Naruto lifted an eyebrow and looked down at the two scrolls sitting by Sasuke’s side. So that’s what he’d been studying so intensely the last couple of days; healing jutsu.

“What do you want, _dobe_?”

Naruto started out of his observation to find Sasuke glaring up at him.

“I’m hungry.”

Sasuke’s expression took on that slight twitch he got whenever Naruto said or did something that made the black-haired boy want to grab the blond and shake him. Hard.

“You _know_ where the kitchen is,” Sasuke gathered his scrolls and stood up easily; kicking the cushion he’d been sitting on back into his room and following it to grab his shirt off of the end of his bed.

Naruto shrugged, “I don’t like messing around in other peoples kitchens.”

“ _Baka,_ ” Sasuke threw the scrolls onto the bed and then pulled his shirt on, flicking the buttons shut as he used his foot to kick the balcony’s sliding door closed after Naruto had followed him inside.

“Do you have any cup ramen?” Naruto asked and received a steely glare.

“Not in _my_ house.”

Naruto frowned, “how can you live without ramen?”

“Healthily,” Sasuke said and pointedly pushed Naruto out into the hallway, and followed. “After we eat we’re going to train,” he said, and tied on his forehead protector, “ _r_ _eal_ training this time.”

Naruto nodded. After he had figured out what Sasuke was doing it was fairly _obvious_ that Sasuke would want to get back to real training.

“So you completely healed your ribs?” Naruto asked and peered at Sasuke’s midsection as if he could somehow look passed the fabric, skin and muscle to inspect the ribs himself.

“Yes,” Sasuke said shortly, “completely.”

***

Sasuke had gone insane.

Yes, that was totally what had happened, it had to be; normal, _sane_ Sasuke wouldn’t be attacking him with, as far as Naruto could tell, full intent to kill, so that only left the insane option.

_I **knew** he was still mad at me!_

Naruto dodged a row of Kunai that lodged themselves, one after another, into the tree he’d been hiding behind and then jumped, leaping to the highest branch he could get to before leaping to the next tree along the line. Where the hell _was_ that bastard anyway? Sasuke had always been better at stealth than Naruto and he was now using that knowledge to the limit. _Damn him_.

_Behind!_ Naruto focused chakra to his feet and dropped himself from his tree limb, gripping onto the bottom of it and throwing a handful of shuriken at Sasuke who had appeared a second after Naruto had moved.

Sasuke easily moved out of the way of the shuriken and landed on the same branch as Naruto, looking down at him with an irritated expression on his face.

“Fight seriously, _dobe_.”

Naruto glared up at Sasuke and pointed and accusing finger at him, “you’re trying to _kill_ me!”

“ _Chi_ ’.” Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, “I’m trying to train seriously.”

“So that’s your plan?! You’re going to kill me ‘by accident’ while we’re training so you don’t get into trouble!” Naruto exclaimed and let go of the chakra in his feet, twisting in mid-air so he landed on his feet.

He glared up at Sasuke, “I _knew_ you were still mad at me for the entire Itachi thing!”

Sasuke’s expression went flat and he jumped down out of the tree, landing lightly in a crouch and looked up at Naruto, his eyes dark.

Naruto twitched nervously at the look in Sasuke’s eyes and couldn’t help taking a half step backwards as the silence began to stretch. This wasn’t good.

“Fight me,” Sasuke said suddenly, “seriously.”

“Wh-what? What do you mean seriously, I always fight you seriously,” Naruto had meant for the words to come out as an exclamation, instead they sounded like a weak protest.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed, “you’ve never once fought me seriously.”

“I hav-”

Sasuke cut him off before he could even begin to protest, uncoiling from his crouch and pushing Naruto back against a tree, his arms on either side of Naruto’s head. His eyes were glittering and Naruto could see a faint tinge of red in them.

“You have power, that power that Itachi wants; the Nine-tails. You have that, I’ve seen you use it, even though I didn’t know what it was. You’ve never fought me seriously. _Fight me seriously_.”

“I…” Naruto’s eyes were wide. The Nine-tails? Fight him with the power of the Kyubi? Sasuke couldn’t be serious, no way. Sasuke wouldn’t even stand a chance if Naruto did that and…and Naruto didn’t want to _beat_ him like that. Sasuke was a fight he wanted to conquer with his _own_ power, not with the borrowed power of the Kyubi.

Naruto suddenly found his voice and shoved Sasuke away from him, “no! Absolutely not! Just because you know about it doesn’t mean I have to do what you say! I won’t do it!”

Sasuke reacted quickly, grabbing Naruto by his wrists and slamming him back against the tree, “you _have_ to!” he snapped and Naruto growled at him.

“I don’t have to do anything. Let me the hell _go_!”

Sasuke set his jaw and glared at Naruto darkly, “no. Not until you agree.”

“Never!” Naruto did his best to try and wrench his wrists out of Sasuke’s grip but succeeded only in making them ache. Damn him! _This_ was why Sasuke hadn’t gotten mad at him, and why he hadn’t minded hanging around with him the last few days. He wanted to use him for the Kyubi! _Damn you, you power hungry_ _ **jerk**_ _!_ “ **Let me** _ **go**_ **!** I won’t fight you!” And he lashed out with his foot catching Sasuke in the side, making him release his grip and stagger a few steps away.

Naruto rubbed at his wrists and glared at Sasuke as he pulled himself back up straight.

“Naruto,” Sasuke growled. Naruto cut him off.

“I won’t let you use me for whatever twisted plan you came up with! I won’t fight you with the Kyubi’s power so you can just stop your friendly act and _fuck off_!” Then he turned to leave.

And Sasuke caught his hand, yanking him back, “Naruto!”

Naruto glared fixedly at the ground and kept his voice calm. “Let. Me. Go. _Now_.”

“No.” Sasuke’s tightened his grip, “Naruto, you _have_ to help me. You _have_ to fight me seriously.”

“Why the hell _should_ I?”

“Because…,” Sasuke’s fingers flexed around Naruto’s wrist. “Because I _still couldn’t beat him,_ ” he said and pulled Naruto further towards him, his voice sounding desperate. “I could fight him, but I couldn’t beat him. It was pure _luck_ that I almost killed him and I’m not stupid enough to think otherwise. I have to train. I have to train and become stronger but not just stronger, I have to become _stronger than_ _ **him**_. That power you have inside you, he _wants_ that and if _he_ wants it then it’s power that _he_ doesn’t have. If you train against me using that power, then I can learn to match it! I’ll _get stronger_.

It was the pleading sound in Sasuke’s voice that made Naruto finally look up from the ground and at the black-haired boy, and it was the desperate look on his face that made him suck his bottom lip into his mouth and begin to worry at it.

Sasuke never asked for help; but he’d just done so…and Sasuke would never lie about something like this. Did that mean what he was saying was true?

“I don’t want to fight you like that,” Naruto said quietly. “That power, it’s not mine, it’s not me. I want to fight you with _my_ power.”

Sasuke’s dark eyes kept Naruto’s gaze for a moment and then suddenly slipped away to stare at the ground as he released Naruto’s hand.

“I understand,” he shoved his hands in his pockets and his jaw set. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

And suddenly Naruto felt like _he_ was the one acting like a bastard. Sasuke’s expression had gone flat again and he refused to look up so Naruto could see his eyes. _Damn you, you son-of-a-bitch!_

“Fine,” Naruto said. He didn’t want to do it but…how could he not? “I’ll fight you.”

Sasuke’s eyes snapped back to Naruto in shock, “what?”

“I said I’d fight you! Just like you want, with the Kyubi’s power.”

Sasuke stayed silent for a moment his expression completely unreadable as he thought and then his eyes narrowed, “no.”

Naruto gaped at him. “ _What?_ ” the word was shrill and indignant.

Sasuke closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and then opened them again, “No. I shouldn’t have asked you. I don’t want you thinking I’m using you for your power, I’ll think of another way to train.”

_Another way to train…?_ What the hell was Sasuke _on_? First he wants to fight the Kyubi’s power and now he was protesting over Naruto agreeing?! “You slam me against a tree, demand I help you and then you say ‘no’ when I agree?!” Naruto clutched his hands into fists and then pointed at finger at Sasuke, “what the _hell_ is your plan?!”

Sasuke stared at him, eyes a little wide and his jaw set as if he were having an internal debate with himself.

“I want your help,” he finally said and then paused before going on, his voice firmer, “but I won’t risk our friendship to get it.”

“Won’t risk…” Naruto repeated dumbly. Did Sasuke just admit, out _loud_ that they were friends?

“Forget this happened,” Sasuke ordered, and began to walk away.

Naruto snapped his mouth shut from when it had fallen open in shock and ran after him, catching his arm.

“Don’t order me around! What the hell is going on in your head, Sasuke? If you didn’t want to risk our…our _friendship_ then you shouldn’t have tried to make me fight you in the _first place_.”

Sasuke stared at Naruto’s hand on his arm for a long moment and then growled in annoyance, “I wasn’t _thinking_ about our damned friendship!” he snapped. “Ever since we got back I’ve been thinking about Itachi! I _have_ to defeat him. I _can’t_ let him stay out there, doing whatever he wants, hurting whoever he likes. All I’ve been thinking about is training! And then it occurred to me that _you_ could help. _That’s_ all I was thinking about!”

“Fine, so I agreed to what you wanted. Why the hell did you change your mind?”

Sasuke glared and smacked Naruto’s hand from his arm, turned and once again started walking away, “I just did. Be thankful.”

Naruto ground his teeth together, “that’s not an answer, Sasuke!”

Sasuke paused, his body tense, and then he carried on walking, disappearing from Naruto’s sight in seconds. This time Naruto didn’t go after him, though. He didn’t go after him because regardless of if he was meant to or not, he’d heard what Sasuke had muttered when he’d paused. The four softly spoken words rooted Naruto’s feet in place and left him unable to feel anything but shock.

Four pain-filled words.

“ _I almost lost you._ ”


	4. Chapter 03

## Chapter Three

  


Naruto lay awake, staring up at his ceiling. Or at least staring at the parts of it he could see. Inside his head his mind was a mass flurry of conflicting thoughts; positive and negative arguments slamming against each other as his overall emotion, confusion, swirled in and around them like some kind of all encompassing, mucky water.

‘ _I almost lost you.’_

Sasuke had been serious when he’d said that. Naruto wasn’t supposed to have heard it, he was sure of that; Sasuke didn’t really know how good Naruto’s hearing was so he couldn’t _possibly_ have intended for Naruto to hear it.

‘ _I almost lost you.’_

And really, Sasuke wouldn’t have revealed _that_ much emotion willingly. He’d sounded so…so…. _Hurt, terrified, sick._

Naruto buried a hand in his hair, gripping the blond strands hard as he tried to make sense on his thoughts. It wasn’t working. He’d been trying to come to grips with what he’d heard since Sasuke had left the clearing and _that_ had been nearly two days ago. Somehow he’d gotten home, he didn’t remember the trip, and he’d spent the entire day just _sitting_ ; sitting and trying to get his thoughts to go in a straight coherent line. Half of him said it was a trick. That Sasuke was just trying to con him into letting him close to the power the Kyubi promised. The other half denied that completely. Sasuke had come out right and _said_ they were friends, he’d actually _said_ it. Sasuke wouldn’t lie to him; he never had and Naruto doubted he ever _would_. So what did that _mean_?!

He’d fallen asleep at some point and woken up half sprawled across his kitchen table. For once he’d escaped dreams of the Kyubi, probably from pure exhaustion, but that hadn’t stopped the events of the previous day assaulting him the second he awoke. Again he’d spent the entire day inside, but he’d had the sense to actually go to bed once it started getting dark so he wouldn’t spend another night using a dirty spoon as a pillow.

He was probably making too much of this. What Sasuke had said, it had probably meant something else completely from what Naruto thought it might mean. Really, since when would Sasuke be afraid to lose the friendship of someone like _Naruto_? That guy, he had everything, didn’t he? He had his pick of anybody he _wanted_ to be his friend so losing Naruto would be a blessing, right? Right?

That’s the path his thoughts would have taken six months ago, before the jutsu that had sealed Naruto’s consciousness outside his body and almost killed him. Six months ago he would have brushed off Sasuke’s odd words in an instant, not once believing them to be anything except a misunderstanding or a mishearing on his own behalf.

That was six months ago. A lot had happened since then.

Sasuke had saved him from that jutsu, driving himself dangerously close to complete exhaustion to figure out how to cure him. Despite the fact that in the end it had been Kakashi who preformed the final jutsu that had finally allowed Naruto to wake up, Naruto hadn’t been nearly as mad at Sasuke for running out of energy and collapsing as he had acted. It was later on, because of a chance conversation with the old-hag-Hokage, that Naruto had come to realise just how close Sasuke had come to doing himself permanent damage with the amounts of Chakra he’d been burning to keep moving and keep his Sharingan active so that he could keep an eye on Naruto; not to mention all the fighting he’d been having to do almost completely solo over the course of the entire mission.

And after that they had become closer. They still fought, but not as much as they had, and with nowhere near the amount of emotion behind it that there used to be. Naruto had gained a _friend_. A _real_ friend; one that looked out for him no matter where he was and no matter what he was doing. From then on Sasuke had _always_ been around, maybe not being sociable, or friendly, but always there.

But that meant…what? Naruto hadn’t even _thought_ about why Sasuke suddenly didn’t mind being around him so much, he’d just latched onto the proof that he and Sasuke had been friends all along and stuck to it; taking it for granted.

What Sasuke had said…did that mean Naruto was as special to _him_ as _he_ was to Naruto? Did he consider Naruto a precious friend that he didn’t want to lose? That fear that Naruto had felt when he’d thought Sasuke would hate him…did Sasuke feel that too?

Naruto went cold. Sasuke had almost killed him in that fight with Itachi and he’d been dwelling on it, too; Naruto had only to mention it and the black-haired boy would clam up, his eyes turning inward. Was that because he was afraid of what he’d almost done?

Naruto rolled over and buried his head in his pillow. Sasuke had said he’d only been thinking about training since they got back. Training to defeat Itachi, to destroy the man who had taken everything he had once held precious from him. And Itachi had been trying to get a hold of Naruto and the Kyubi for years.

Naruto groaned. This was too complicated! If he thought about it like _that_ then the words Sasuke had muttered could very easily have applied to the fight against Itachi, or to the argument over training with the Kyubi’s power. Or _both_.

What the hell was he supposed to _do_?! He couldn’t avoid Sasuke forever, he didn’t _want_ too, so he had to come up with _some_ kind of solution. But _what_?

This was ridiculous! Naruto suddenly pushed himself up so he was kneeling, grabbed his pillow and hurled it across the room. What the _hell_ was this?! Ever since that moment in the forest when Sasuke had almost hit him with his Chidori, Naruto’s emotions had been slowly turning upside-down. He’d discovered the truth behind Sasuke’s past and why he was trying to kill his brother, he’d actually _told_ Sasuke about the Kyubi and over all he’d been dithering around like a scared little girl, afraid of losing a friend and getting hurt. Their friendship had been _fine_ before this! Sure sometimes it was stressing, and it could be hard not to just lash out and wipe that stupid smirk off of Sasuke’s face sometimes, but it had been _fine_. Now he didn’t know if he should run away to stop from getting hurt, _cling_ to stop from getting hurt, or just pretend like nothing was happening. His decision the other day to stay away from Sasuke had seemed to be the right course of action at the time…but if Sasuke was _just_ as afraid of losing Naruto’s friendship as Naruto was of losing Sasuke’s then that would just be _stupid_. If _that_ were the case he should just march himself around to Sasuke’s house _now_ and sort things out.

“ _Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!_ ” Naruto gasped back his breath from yelling and then flopped onto his back, spreading his arms so they hung off either side of the bed as he, once again, stared up at the ceiling. The source of all this was _Itachi_ , Naruto decided. If Itachi hadn’t have been there then Naruto never would have accidentally gotten in the way, Sasuke wouldn’t have missed his opportunity, coming a hairs breath from killing Naruto in the process, and Naruto never would have been impelled to tell Sasuke about the Kyubi. Then Sasuke wouldn’t even have _considered_ asking Naruto to help him train to defeat Itachi.

And Sasuke wouldn’t be obsessing over training to defeat the person that threatened to take away another one of the things he held precious.

Sighing, Naruto pulled himself off of his bed and retrieved the thrown pillow, patting it back into shape absently as he climbed back into bed. There was only one thing for it really; he didn’t know what was going on in Sasuke’s head, and he wasn’t likely to find out, but that didn’t really matter. Sasuke was his _friend_ and it was time Naruto stopped running from that, afraid for himself. His options were fairly simple, help Sasuke train to defeat his brother, or not.

He couldn’t say ‘no’, Sasuke needed him, and that was what friends were for.

***

_Sunlight. It was warm._

_Naruto kept his eyes closed as he lay back on the soft grass around him, arms pillowed behind his head comfortably as that warm sunlight glowed down at him, warming him onto a state of complete contentment._

_There was a slight hint of wind, a warm breeze that stirred the air enough to keep things from getting too uncomfortably warm, and he could hear it as it flowed around him, caressing the longish strands of grass, the leaves of nearby trees and bushes and making his fringe brush across his face, tickling his nose and almost making him want to sneeze. The breeze also carried scents; the scents of summer, warm smells; freshly crushed grass from where he’d been training earlier, pollen from the various flowers that were coming to blossom, and the natural smells of the forest._

_He dozed lightly in the warmth, a small smile on his face as he allowed himself to relax into his surroundings._

_It felt good._

***

Okay. Naruto was officially nervous.

Fiddling with the zipper on his jacket, he stared at Sasuke’s front door and contemplated knocking on it. He hadn’t even thought about what he was going to do when he’d woken up that morning, he’d simply gotten dressed, eaten breakfast and powered onwards, determined to get to Sasuke’s house, get over the awkward conversation that was bound to ensue when Sasuke opened the door, and then get to training.

That had been before he got here. Now he was here and had been staring at the door for a full five minutes, trying to figure out what on earth he was going to say to smooth things over.

It really wasn’t like him to be this indecisive. It was annoying and, _damn it_ , it was all Sasuke’s fault.

Growling, Naruto lifted his hand and banged on the door, glowering at it until it finally opened.

The second it did, revealing a startled Sasuke, Naruto pointed a finger at him. “This is all your fault!” he exclaimed. “Do you have any idea how long I had to stand out here because of you?!”

Sasuke looked completely confused. “If you had have knocked earlier then I would have answered the door sooner,” he said.

“ _That’s not the point!_ ” Naruto’s voice got louder. “The point is that because of you I _couldn’t_ knock because I was to nervous over what I was going to say to you and so I had to _stand here_ looking like an idiot!”

Sasuke’s expression, if possible, looked further confused, then shifted to startled, then understanding. And then he smirked. “You _are_ an idiot,” he said.

“I am _not_ , bastard! You are! It’s _your_ fault!”

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, “I don’t see why I’m to blame because you can’t figure out how to knock on a door.”

And Naruto punched him.

It wasn’t a hard punch, not by his normal standards, but it was enough to knock Sasuke’s head to the side and stagger him back a step or two. _Oops…_

There was a moment of silence and then Sasuke turned his head back to look at Naruto, an eyebrow lifted.

“Do you feel better now?” he asked quietly and Naruto felt his face heating.

“Errr…yeah. A bit. Yes.”

Sasuke actually, for a split second before his typical uncaring mask took over his expression, looked relieved, “good. Is that all you wanted?”

“…No.”

Sasuke looked at Naruto impassively, waiting for him to go on.

Naruto briefly considered explaining his decision then threw the idea away, it’d be easier to just do it instead of explaining it. That way Sasuke couldn’t argue again.

“Can we train?” he asked and tried to ignore the twisting feeling in his stomach; it was implying he was nervous about Sasuke’s answer, which was ridiculous.

Sasuke’s uncaring mask flickered for a moment and he lowered his head. “Of course,” he said softly, “I’ll get my things,” and he turned and walked away, leaving Naruto to wait at the door.

Naruto was stunned. That brief expression before Sasuke had looked away, that reaction to a simple question about training…. Sasuke had looked relieved. Beyond relieved.

Naruto shook his head and snapped out of his unfocused stare at the empty doorway. That can’t have been right. Sasuke, mister ‘I’ve-got-a-stick-up-my-arse-and-it’s-made-of-ice’ does _not_ get emotional when someone asks him to train with them. Come _on_ , it was _Sasuke_.

“Let’s go, _dobe,_ ” Sasuke appeared back in the doorway, now wearing his weapons and forehead protector, and pushed Naruto out of the way so he could step out and lock the door behind him.

See, _that_ was the Sasuke that Naruto knew, Mister ‘I-don’t-give-a-damn-and-you’re-a- _dobe_ ’, back in action.

Wait a moment…

“Don’t call me that!”

“Hn, whatever. _Dobe._ ”

“Bastard!” Naruto growled and chased after Sasuke who had marched off down the street, regardless of if Naruto was following or not.

They argued all the way to their favourite training area. Or rather, Naruto argued, Sasuke ignored him except for a few insults here and there; it was almost as if the passed few days hadn’t happened. Almost.

As they got closer to the training grounds what Naruto was about to do loomed bigger and bigger in his mind and by the time they reached their destination his subjectless arguing trailed off until he was completely silent. Sasuke cast him an unreadable look at the silence, but didn’t say anything, Naruto was glad for that.

This part he actually had planned. Compared to smoothing things over with Sasuke, planning out how to train against him with the Kyubi’s power was child’s play. Naruto immediately moved to the centre of the clearing and looked down, closing his eyes to concentrate.

“Come at me,” he said.

Sasuke paused in checking his weapons again and stared at him. Naruto could feel the other’s eyes burning into him, “what?”

Naruto let a smirk creep onto his face and began to gather his Chakra, first his own, then the Kyubi’s; mixing it slowly to create the right amount of power. It was harder then it sounded.

“I said, come at me. I’m not going to move from this spot.” He slitted one eye open and cast a superior look at Sasuke, “if you don’t think you can beat me you can feel free to give up _now,_ though.”

Sasuke didn’t rise to the bait; instead his expression was riveted to the whisker marks that were growing more pronounced and the single eye that was slowly turning red. “Naruto…”

Naruto shut his eye again. “My choice,” he stated simply.

“But…” Sasuke was really being annoying over this.

“You’re not _afraid_ are you?” he said tauntingly, “I can defeat you easily like this, you know; so you should be.”

He could positively _feel_ the glare that was suddenly being directed at him. He knew Sasuke to well. His eyes would have narrowed and he would have gotten that calculating look he got whenever he was about to face a real challenge.

“Come at you?” he said at last and Naruto nodded, still not opening his eyes.

“Your goal, Sasuke, is to see if you can get me to move from this spot,” he smirked; Sasuke would _not_ like such a simple sounding task.

He didn’t. When the boy answered his voice sounded well and truly pissed off.

“Fine, are you ready?”

Naruto smirked wider, “I’m ready, start any time you like.”

Sasuke growled and Naruto felt it. The chakra of the Kyubi now sang through his body and everything around him seemed amplified ten times over. When Sasuke growled he felt it in his own chest, and when Sasuke finally turned and disappeared into the trees Naruto felt the impact of his footfalls in the ground beneath his own feet. He might only have been using a filtered version of the Kyubi’s chakra for this, but Sasuke wasn’t going to have an easy time of it.

Naruto moved his head slightly to the left as a kunai whizzed passed his head and lodged in a tree behind him. Sasuke was starting out by testing him. Naruto stayed relaxed, letting his instincts read the signs of attack around him.

_Left_. Naruto leaned backwards a little, then to the left again. _Sh_ _uriken. Kunai._ They made different sounds when moving through the air; he could tell the difference.

This testing, it wouldn’t last long, Sasuke hated fighting like that. Lifting his left arm, Naruto blocked the punch that came at him, right on time. Physical attacks now, but Sasuke was still only testing him, seeing if Naruto _could_ block his attacks, like he’d boasted. To Naruto it felt like Sasuke was moving in slow motion, he sort of hoped that Sasuke would hurry up and get serious instead of all this testing and warming up.

Naruto got his wish a second later as Sasuke threw a punch at his gut, moved with Naruto’s block so that he had extra momentum when he spun and aimed a kick at Naruto’s head, ignored the fact that Naruto simply moved his head slightly to doge it and back flipped, trying to hit Naruto in the jaw with both his feet as Naruto recovered from the first dodge. But Naruto was faster than that and the kick missed him by mere centimetres, eliciting a growl from the black-haired boy that seemed to echo through Naruto’s rib cage.

The fight was fast and furious after that. Sasuke didn’t stop attacking even once, not even pausing for breath as he struggled to get Naruto to move from where he stood. After a while though, he struggled simply to land a clean hit.

Sasuke was breathing hard and his sweat damp clothing was sticking to him uncomfortably by the time Naruto frowned and turned his head in Sasuke’s direction. Naruto didn’t even have to _try_ to figure out where Sasuke was now, if the sound of his breathing didn’t give it away, the smell of sweat did.

“Are you using your Sharingan?” he asked.

Sasuke paused for a moment to recover his breath. “ _Yes!_ ” he snapped.

“Oh,” Naruto finally opened eyes he hadn’t needed to open for the whole fight and scratched the back of his head, “then I think I used to much of the Kyubi’s chakra; I was aiming to be stronger than you, but only enough so that you had a chance. This holding back thing is tough.”

Sasuke was half doubled over, his hands resting on his knees as he struggled to get his breathing back to normal. He was a mess, Naruto realised, filthy and soaked through with sweat. He looked up at Naruto and _glared_.

“You’re holding _back_?” he demanded.

“Of course! I don’t want to kill you by accident!” Naruto snapped back and then dropped to the ground, sitting cross-legged as he released the Kyubi’s chakra. His eyes faded back to blue immediately and his whisker marks went back to normal. “Well at least I’m going to be learning something from all this, normally I just activate as much of the Kyubi’s chakra as I can; I’m not used to holding it back at a certain level.”

“Just how strong _is_ the Kyubi’s chakra?!” Sasuke demanded and finally managed to stand up straight.

“I don’t know,” Naruto answered honestly. “Very, I think. It’s stronger every time I use it.”

“As far as we know, there’s no limit to the Kyubi’s power,” a third voice said and both Naruto and Sasuke snapped their heads around to stare at the white haired man sitting calmly in a nearby tree, a book resting in his hands as if up until that moment he’d been comfortably reading.

_What the_ _ **hell**_ _?!_ Naruto hadn’t sensed anyone else around them at _all_ , not even when he’d been using the Kyubi’s chakra.

“Kakashi…Sensei?” Sasuke said, the tenseness in his body relaxing slightly. “You know…?” he looked at Naruto questioningly.

“Errr…yeah,” Naruto said and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I think just about anyone who was about twelve when the Kyubi attacked knows.”

“…Everyone?” Sasuke said slowly, then nodded in understanding and turned his dark eyes back to Kakashi. “Unlimited power?” he asked intently.

Kakashi lifted a hand and slowly rubbed the side of his nose through his mask. “Pretty much,” he said carefully. “When it attacked, there was nothing we could do to defeat it. A lot of people died attempting it. We’re only here today because the Fourth somehow managed to seal the demon inside of Naruto.” Kakashi’s eyes flickered to Naruto, “technically it wasn’t defeated; but at least it’s no longer a problem.”

Naruto grimaced. “When did you get here?” he asked, diverting the subject.

Kakashi shrugged and went back to his book, “a while ago.”

“ _Why_ are you here?” Sasuke demanded.

Kakashi didn’t bother looking up. “It seemed like a nice place to read my book,” he answered.

Naruto winced. Right. Like that was the truth. Kakashi was here because he had felt the Kyubi’s chakra and, since he was still technically Naruto’s instructor, it was his responsibility to check up on him and why he was _using_ that power. Naruto had forgotten about that, perhaps he should have warned someone.

“I gather,” Kakashi broke the silence that had descended on the clearing as he turned one of the pages in his book, “that you two plan on training like this from now on.” A statement; not a question. “In future don’t start until I’ve arrived.”

Naruto blinked at the man. _Until he’s arrived?_ But Kakashi hadn’t overseen their training for nearly a year now. Despite the fact that team seven were all still _Genin_ , they had the power and experience of _Chuunin_ , if not _Jounin_ , so Kakashi had begun to spend more and more of his time doing missions instead of training his pupils, who were more then capable of training themselves.

“Why?” Sasuke asked, and glared up into the tree Kakashi was perched in.

The man finally looked up from his book and looked down at Sasuke speculatively. “This is a dangerous way of training,” he said finally. “You’ll need someone to make sure you don’t overdo it. Plus,” he added the last slightly more cheerfully, “the _Chuunin_ exam is coming up again. Sakura needs to take it and _pass_ if she wants to complete her training and it’s about time you two got a better rank on you.”

“You’re just trying to get rid of us,” Naruto accused.

“Yes,” Kakashi agreed.

“How long till the exam?” Sasuke asked. “I hadn’t heard there was going to be another one yet.”

“Two weeks,” Kakashi answered. “There are a lot of _Genin_ coming out of the Academy soon so Tsunade-sama requested the next exam be moved closer so we can clear some space for them, free up instructors so they can take new teams.”

“Oh.” Naruto stared down at the blades of grass between his feet. Another _Chuunin_ exam; he’d already taken five over the years and, though he’d failed them, it hadn’t exactly bothered him much. He had plenty of time before the old-hag was ready to give up her position as Hokage and really, being a Genin wasn’t as much as a handicap as he’d first imagined it would be. Tsunade gave them missions they could handle, which these days was between B and A-class, and Naruto didn’t particularly _want_ to find himself in charge of groups bigger than he and Sasuke, and occasionally Sakura.

Still…it was a good opportunity, for a lot of different things.

“Well,” Kakashi put his book back into his weapons pouch and stood up, “be here at the time you normally show up, tomorrow. Naruto, think up some things that might help you control your ability to mix your chakra. You kept it fairly steady this morning, but you need to be able to manipulate its level a bit better.”

And he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“ _Chi_ ’.”

Naruto turned his gaze from the now empty tree to Sasuke.

“Now we’ll spend all morning waiting around for _him_ to show up,” Sasuke said with annoyance.

“Probably,” Naruto agreed and eyed Sasuke warily. Now was when he found out how pissed off Sasuke was that he’d had his arse kicked. He hadn’t intended to beat the other boy so badly; Sasuke should be ready to glare at him any second.

Naruto waited with muscles tense as Sasuke stared off into the trees, his eyes dark with thought.

Finally the other boy turned to him, but it wasn’t with the annoyed expression he was expecting. “I need a shower,” Sasuke said, “and then we can have lunch.”

Naruto gaped at him, “a…shower?”

Now Sasuke looked irritated, “yes. I’m not going to lunch until I’ve had one.”

“But…aren’t you mad?” he asked tentatively and it was Sasuke’s turn to look confused.

“Why?”

“Well you normally get all uptight when I kick your arse,” Naruto said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh,” Sasuke paused and then he smirked. “I’m not mad,” he said and began to walk towards Naruto until he was standing over him, forcing Naruto to crane his neck to see the other boys face. “Training like this, it’ll definitely make me stronger.”

“Oh,” Naruto looked away from Sasuke in favour of studying the ground and the grass he was now methodically ripping up and shredding into tiny pieces, “of course.” Of course Sasuke wasn’t mad, he was getting what he wanted, a new tool to give him strength.

Naruto blinked suddenly as Sasuke crouched down beside him and grabbed his chin, forcing the blond to look at him. “Thank you for doing this,” he said, his eyes intent and deadly serious. “I know I gave you no reasons to do this for me, so I’m grateful that you are…and I’m also grateful that you didn’t leave. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had, I probably would have if it had been me.”

Naruto stared at Sasuke, stunned, “I…I wouldn’t leave.”

Sasuke rubbed his thumb against Naruto’s chin. “Good,” he said softly then cleared his throat suddenly and stood up. “Let’s go.”

Naruto shook his head and then grinned and wrinkled his nose. “Right! Cause you know what? You _really_ need a shower.”

Sasuke cast a half glare at him, “ _b_ _aka_.”


	5. Chapter 04

## Chapter Four

  


_Hot breath. Fangs. The stench of blood. Fear. How long had he had to endure it now? It seemed like a lifetime, it seemed like_ _**two** _ _lifetimes. He was injured, blood dripped down his left arm, staining his shirt from the elbow down. Sweat glistened on any part of his skin that wasn’t obscured by blood and dirt, stinging him as it soaked into his wounds._

_The Kyubi growled low in its throat and the air vibrated with the sound. Naruto growled back. He had a plan, and now it was time to put it in action._

_Determination in his eyes, he bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood and slammed it down on the ground._

“ _Summoning no jutsu!”_

***

Naruto arrived at the clearing the next morning blurry eyed and still half asleep; though he was knocked out of that sleepiness a few seconds later when the first words that greeted him were: “you’re late.”

It wasn’t Sasuke who said it.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Naruto as the blond gaped at him, and then flapped a hand negligently in Sasuke’s direction. “No matter, I hope you figured out a way to keep the Kyubi’s Chakra level down, I don’t want you two to stop training till about lunch time.”

Naruto turned his bewildered gaze to Sasuke and received a shrug. Naruto could only guess that Kakashi must have been serious about getting them through the _Chuunin_ exam this time.

“You can begin any time,” Kakashi said, a not-so-subtle hint for them to hurry the hell up.

Naruto cast the man an irritated look and then moved to the centre of the clearing; guessing, correctly, that they’d do the same as yesterday.

Naruto did a better job of keeping a low level of power this time and by lunchtime, when Kakashi finally called a halt, Sasuke had managed to knock Naruto from his position twice. Though, that didn’t stop the black-haired boy from dropping to his knees, trying to get his breath back, as soon as Kakashi told them to stop. Naruto stood awkwardly nearby letting the Kyubi’s chakra dissipate.

“You did better this time,” Kakashi said and stood, putting his book away. “Sasuke, I’m hoping this will improve your endurance a little, you have to remember to save enough energy for the end of the battle as well as expending what you need to for the beginning. Naruto, be here on time tomorrow.”

Naruto glared as, again, their teacher disappeared in the puff of smoke before the words had even finished being said and turned to Sasuke who was still gasping on the ground.

“He must really want to get rid of us,” Naruto grouched.

Sasuke nodded absently and pushed himself to his feet. “He was here…even before I was…this morning,” he managed to say between gasps and pushed his forehead protected slightly higher on his forehead in an attempt to keep his sweat soaked hair off of his face.

“You look like hell,” Naruto observed and ignored the glare Sasuke aimed at him.

A few minutes later, Sasuke had finally gotten his breathing under control and they turned to leave only to find Sakura entering the clearing.

“Hello!” she chirped and Naruto grinned, waving as she joined them. “I thought we could have lunch!” she said.

Naruto opened his mouth, fully intending to take her up on her offer immediately, but was cut off by Sasuke.

“Not today.”

“Oh,” Sakura said, deflating slightly.

Naruto aimed a glare at Sasuke. “Why not?” he demanded and Sasuke frowned at him.

“We still have things to do,” he said and walked passed Naruto and Sakura, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Hurry up.”

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. “ _You_ have things to do; I don’t. _I’ll_ have lunch with you, Sakura-chan.”

“Errr…no. That’s alright.” Sakura looked less than enthusiastic, “If you have things to do then I’ll just go back to the academy. Bye, Sasuke-kun!” she waved a little at the boy as she passed him and walked quickly from the clearing.

Naruto stayed where he was for a moment, his expression blank, until Sasuke sighed and turned back to him, looking irritated.

“ _Baka_. You knew she was going to do that.”

“Yeah,” Naruto agreed.

Sasuke’s lips tightened, “so why did you bother?”

Naruto managed a half grin, “maybe, one day, I’ll get lucky and she’ll agree.”

“You don’t believe that,” Sasuke said and Naruto dropped his grin and began to walk, passing Sasuke quickly.

“No,” he agreed as Sasuke fell in beside him. It never seemed to stop him from trying though; he couldn’t seem to stop, even though he _knew_ that the only person Sakura saw was Sasuke. It was frustrating.

“So, stop,” Sasuke said.

Naruto turned a glare on the black-haired boy. “Mind your own business!” he snapped and began to walk faster.

Sasuke caught up to him in a few steps.

“No. You should stop throwing yourself at her, it’s irritating.”

“Really? Gee, I apologise for irritating someone as high and mighty as yourself. If it’s such a bother, _don’t look_.”

“Naruto!” Sasuke snapped the others name and grabbed his arm, yanking him to a stop.

Naruto slapped Sasuke’s hand away and glared, “don’t. It’s none of your business, leave me alone.”

“Idiot! I’m trying to help.”

“What? So you can have her to yourself!” Naruto began to walk again.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Sasuke snapped. “I don’t want _her_.”

“No? Then how come you haven’t stopped her fawning over you so much?” Naruto demanded and spun on his heel to glare at Sasuke fixedly.

Sasuke glared back, “because she can be just as dense as _you_ can sometimes. She doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. What would you have me _do_?”

Their argument had taken them out of the training areas and into the village itself and Naruto suddenly put his hand over his eyes and leaned back against a nearby wall.

“Sorry,” he muttered. He’d been lashing out without reason; he knew that. Sasuke avoided Sakura as much as he could and Naruto knew it, hell; half the time he was _helping_ Sasuke avoid her.

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a long while before he finally spoke, his voice low.

“Come on. Let me go home and have a shower, and then I’ll make you some ramen.”

Naruto felt his lips twitch slightly in amusement, when all else failed people always resorted to ramen. _Wait…_

“ _Make_ me some ramen?” he inquired.

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched, “I’m not buying you any, I don’t have enough cash on me to feed you.”

Naruto smirked, “fine. Whatever you want. Let’s go!”

And, mood completely restored, he grabbed Sasuke by the arm and began dragging him down the street.

***

“Ramen~, Ramen~, Home-made Raaaamannn~.”

Naruto lay on his back on the floor of Sasuke’s kitchen, arms behind his head and his foot tapping against the side of the low table as he hummed to himself. He was waiting for Sasuke to get out of the shower and finish changing and he was getting _incredibly_ bored.

And he wanted his ramen.

Flipping over onto his stomach, Naruto rested his chin on his arms and glared at the doorway, willing Sasuke to hurry up and walk through it.

No such luck.

He began to wiggle along the floor, moving until he could see down the hallway. Still no Sasuke.

Naruto eyed the bathroom door and tried to force it into opening with pure will alone. His eyebrow twitched slightly when it didn’t work.

Was there any particular reason Sasuke was taking so long? Did he normally take this long? He tried to think back, but all his hungry thoughts provided for him was the never-ending mantra ‘Ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen’.

Hmmm…. He wondered if the door was locked.

Then he wondered how badly Sasuke would bet him up if he barged into the bathroom and dragged the black-haired boy out of the shower to cook for him.

Naruto’s lips twitched up into a smirk and his eyes got a glint to them that could only be read as mischievous. Slowly (he had to give Sasuke a chance after all) he began to crawl his way down the hallway and towards the bathroom door, his eyes never leaving it as he waited for any indication it was going to open. If it opened that was his cue to hightail it back to the kitchen and pretend he _hadn’t_ just been stalking his way down Sasuke’s hallway on his hands and knees; however the door didn’t open.

When he was finally sitting in front of the solid looking wooden door, he eyed it again carefully. It would suck a little if Sasuke were to walk out right then, but he supposed he could handle it for the sake of ramen. Maybe he should knock?

He continued eyeing the door for a moment, then slowly reached up and tested the handle. It was unlocked. He stifled an evil laugh; who needed to knock? Not Uzumaki Naruto!

Releasing the handle carefully so it wouldn’t make any sound, Naruto tapped the door open and hit the floor in full stealth mode, ready to flee at a moments notice. After a brief pause in which no raging Sasuke descended on him, Naruto let his eyes roam the bathroom quickly and smirked. Pretty boy was still in the shower and it was one of those nifty ones with a glass screen, so Sasuke wouldn’t even have noticed the cold breeze from the door opening.

Keeping his body full length across the floor so Sasuke wouldn’t see his shadow moving, Naruto shimmied along, his going easier once he hit the tiles, and pushed the door half shut behind him.

He went still for a moment as the shadow on the other side of the glass moved and then, when it became apparent that the glass screen wasn’t going to open, began to shimmy along the ground again until he had his back up against the wall beside glass door.

_Hmmm…. What to do, what to_ _ **do**_? He contemplated a few options before settling for the most basic of them all and implemented it.

Settling into a more natural way of sitting, he reached out with one finger and pushed the sliding door open.

“ _Oi_ , hurry up.”

Sasuke’s reaction was amusing, to say the least. With a look of complete shock, Sasuke spun around and glared out the door, his expression turning to confusion for a moment before he looked down and saw Naruto grinning up at him.

Naruto lifted a hand and imitated their Icha Icha Paradise loving Sensei, “yo!”

Sasuke flushed bright red and slammed the shower door shut.

Naruto blinked and then his grin grew even wider. _Hell yeah! Mission_ _ **complete**_ _!_ That was one Uchiha Sasuke who was _never_ going to linger in the shower when he’d promised to make Naruto ramen again.

Naruto began to laugh and the glass door was flung back open. Sasuke glared down at him with cheeks that were now only slightly pink, though that could have been blamed on the hot water that was streaming down around him.

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

Naruto swallowed his laughter and made his eyes wide, “raaaamen.”

Sasuke’s expression turned incredulous, “get the hell out of my bathroom.”

“But I’m _hun_ gry.”

“I’ll make the damned ramen when I’m finished. Get _out_.”

Naruto latched onto one of Sasuke’s legs, “but I’m hungry _now_.”

Sasuke had turned bright red again; “get the _hell off me_!”

Naruto resisted Sasuke’s attempts to pry him off and frowned. “Sasuke, you’re getting me wet,” he complained.

Sasuke’s answer was slightly strained, “you’re leaning into the shower, what the _hell_ do you expect. Now, let me _go_.”

“Only if you get out,” Naruto said.

“ _Yes,_ _ **yes**_. Now let _**go**_!”

“ _Pft_ , fine,” Naruto released Sasuke’s leg and stood up, grabbing one of the towels that hung near the shower door. “I’m going to steal some of your clothes,” he declared and, using the towel to start drying his hair, walked out of the bathroom, hearing something hard hit the door as he closed it behind him.

Sasuke’s clothes were slightly too big for him, but Naruto got around that by rolling up the legs of the black pants he’d stolen and using the belt for his weapons pouch to keep them up. They looked a bit stupid, but once he’d grabbed a random top and pulled that on you couldn’t really tell. Naruto frowned and pulled on the collar of the dark blue shirt a bit; how could Sasuke stand the collar being this high?

“If you don’t like it, take the damned thing off, _d_ _obe_.”

Naruto looked over his shoulder at where Sasuke was standing in the doorway, wearing a towel around his waist and using a second to dry his hair off. The black-haired boys eyes were riveted to Naruto’s back and his expression was unreadable.

Naruto’s eyebrows meet as he frowned. “There a problem with me wearing this?” he asked and tried to look behind him at whatever Sasuke was staring at.

Sasuke snapped his glare away from Naruto and walked into the room, “it’s fine. Stop twisting like that, you’ll fall over.”

“ _Chi_ ’.” Naruto swore and flopped down onto Sasuke’s bed, “I don’t know why you’re acting so bent out of shape. You have _no_ sense of humour.”

“Obviously,” Sasuke said and Naruto rolled his eyes, “since I didn’t know being a pervert was a requirement to having one.”

“Pervert?!” Naruto changed his position so he was sitting on his knees and leaned forward, “I wasn’t the one blushing so hard the room could have been set on fire, you know!”

Sasuke threw the towel he’d been drying his hair with at Naruto and began to pull clothes out of his draws. “No, you were the one peeping.”

Naruto dodged the towel and glared, “I was _not_.”

“Last time I checked sneaking around and watching people while they bathed was called peeping.” Sasuke pulled a black t-shirt on over his head and turned to glare at Naruto, “you’ve been spending to much time around that perverted Jiraiya, now get the hell out of my room.”

Naruto stood up and glared. “It would only be peeping if you were a _girl,_ ” he declared, walked to the doorway, but paused to leer over his shoulder, “and you’re _definitely_ not a girl.”

For the third time in ten minutes, Sasuke blushed beet red and Naruto slammed the door behind him as he ran out of the room, laughing.

***

“Are you _sure_ you’re not going to poison me?” Naruto had asked the question four times already as it had occurred to him, after Sasuke finally walked into the kitchen, fully dressed, that the black-haired boy could put anything in the ramen and Naruto wouldn’t know until he was suffering through Sasuke’s revenge.

“I said I’m not going to!” Sasuke snapped and turned from what he was doing to glare at Naruto, “I’m going to be eating it as well, you know. Do you think I’d poison myself?”

“Maybe?” Naruto hazarded to answer. Who knew _what_ lengths Sasuke would go to, to exact revenge?

“ _Baka_!” Sasuke spat the word and went back to his task. Naruto thumped his head down on the table and resigned himself to still more waiting.

“Why don’t you go away and _do_ something?” Sasuke finally said in irritation. “Go study some scrolls in the living room, or something.”

“Don’t feel like it,” Naruto said to the tabletop.

“You’re annoying me,” Sasuke said.

“Good,” he didn’t even have to look up to know that Sasuke was probably trying to suppress an eyebrow twitch.

Naruto sighed a little and, lifting his head slightly, crossed his arms on the table to rest his chin on. He stared at Sasuke, “ _o_ _i_ , Sasuke?”

“What?” Sasuke snapped, not turning around.

“Are you sure there’s no problem with me wearing this shirt? You looked a bit green when you saw me wearing it.”

Sasuke paused in the process of putting ramen noodles into a pot of boiling water and then continued.

“I said it was fine.”

Naruto turned his gaze away from Sasuke’s back and began to poke his still wet forehead protector that he’d put in front of him on the table, “really?”

“Yes.”

Hmmm… Typical, monosyllabic, Sasuke. Now how to phrase the next question? Oh, who cared, he was already in enough trouble as it was.

“So why…err… well, how come…”

“Shut up,” Sasuke said. Naruto noted he’d stopped whatever he’d been doing again and was staring out the window.

“I was just wondering,” Naruto grouched and went back to staring at his headband.

Sasuke remained silent.

It was a very uncomfortable, brooding silence that Naruto sat through as he waited for Sasuke to finish making their lunch. He refused to leave the room though, he had a feeling that leaving Sasuke alone to think right then was a bad idea; he didn’t have a clue as to _why_ though.

Sasuke had made beef ramen, and vegetables. Naruto frowned at the amount of vegetables but resigned himself to eating them; food was food, after all. It was quite good.

It took till he was about halfway through his meal before he noticed that Sasuke was still in his brooding silence, barely touching his lunch as he stared into space. Naruto slowed the speed of his eating down and stared at Sasuke across the table. Sasuke didn’t even notice.

Naruto was completely confused. _It’s just a_ _ **shirt**_. He’d seen Sasuke wearing a zillion shirts exactly like it over the years and there had been a whole bunch just like it in the draw Naruto had grabbed it from. What was so special about it? Maybe it had something bizarre written on the back.

Naruto was startled out of his thoughts and he half choked on a ramen noodle as Sasuke suddenly spoke.

“You’re the first one,” he said.

Naruto stared at him as if he’d grown an extra head, “first one what?”

Sasuke’s eyes finally left middle space and landed on him, making Naruto shiver slightly at the intensity there.

“You’re the first person, other than me, who has worn that symbol since…. Since Itachi…,” he paused and his mouth formed a thin line, “since _then_.”

Naruto paused in the process of bringing another mouthful of ramen to his mouth and let it hang open.

“What?”

“Most of my shirts have the Uchiha Clan symbol on the back. You’re wearing one of those.”

Oh… _oops_.

Naruto put his chopsticks down. “I’ll go take it off,” he said and began to get up.

“ _No!_ ”

Naruto froze, halfway through standing and looked at Sasuke, wide-eyed.

“I mean, no,” Sasuke said a bit more calmly. “I said it’s fine. It’s fine. Finish your ramen,” Sasuke looked down at his own bowl and began to follow his own advice.

Naruto stayed like he was for a moment before settling back down and picking his chopsticks up, watching Sasuke over his bowl. He _really_ wanted to ask Sasuke again if he was _sure_ he didn’t want Naruto to go get changed, but Naruto occasionally knew when not to push a subject. If Sasuke insisted it was fine, then he’d stab Naruto to death with his chopsticks before admitting that it wasn’t. In fact he might just stab Naruto to death with the chopsticks just for asking again.

Naruto focused on finishing his ramen.

***

Naruto was doing guard duty. _Boring_ , with a capital _**Boring**_ ; sometimes it really sucked that the old-hag-Hokage gave him assignments that fitted his skill level instead of his rank, being still only a _Genin_ he should have been able to avoid this.

Naruto leaned back on the wall behind him and stared off into the forest. At least this assignment wasn’t for _long_. He’d already been standing at this entrance to Konoha for four hours and he only had another two hours before he was relieved… Oh, who was he kidding? He’d been _standing here_ at this tiny, little, hardly used doorway for _four hours_ , _freezing_ himself half to death since it had _rained_ on him only an hour ago; it was getting _dark_ out, he’d forgotten to wear the gloves that went with the uniform he was forced to wear while on guard duty and he still had to dither around here for _another two hours_.

Life sucked.

Shoving his hands under his armpits so they wouldn’t freeze off, Naruto closed his eyes and focused on staying warm (or as warm as he could be while standing against a cold, wet brick wall in soaking wet, lukewarm clothes and with his left foot in a puddle of water that he couldn’t avoid having his foot in no matter _where_ he stood because he wasn’t allowed to _move_ from in front of the gate).

He shivered and tightened his arms around his chest, burrowing his hands further under his arms. Damn this weather, and damn guard duty. Damn that old-hag-Hokage too, while he was at it. This was all her fault. He could have been at home right now, snuggled up in bed, warm and with a cup of ramen, enjoying the fact that he wasn’t outside; instead he was out here. Out here doing _Chuunin_ duties. Sure, he _knew_ that the old hag was assigning he and Sasuke _Chuunin_ duties because she didn’t believe that something as petty as rank should hold them back, and more importantly it meant that she believed he could _handle_ the duties; but it still didn’t stop him from being wet, miserable, outside and hungry. _Really_ hungry.

If only he could become Hokage without doing the annoying bits in between.

The two hours before his replacement came seemed to crawl and it rained on him twice more before he managed to get away. When he finally got to go home he had to almost literally _drag_ his water logged body and when he finally got there it took five minutes of his nearly blue fingers fiddling with his key before he could convince it to go in the lock and open the door.

Walking inside with a wet, squelch-y sound, Naruto kicked the door shut, listened for the lock to click and then began to move towards his bathroom, fighting with his wet clothes and frozen fingers as he walked. He didn’t have much in the way of success and by the time he managed to get his vest and weapons off and hurl them into the wash basket inside the bathroom door, he was ready to cry with exhaustion. Fighting with his top, pants and shoes went easier and he hurled them all into the wash basket before wrapping his arms around his naked body and shivering his way to his room. He knew he could do with something warm in him, and he also knew he could use a hot shower to thaw out; but he was so damned tired all he wanted to do was curl up in bed and die for a few hours. His room was chilly when he reached it and Naruto settled for grabbing the nearest clothes to him instead of rummaging in his dresser for his pyjamas.

It didn’t occur to him till he suddenly found himself enveloped in the smell of _Sasuke_ that he had pulled on the clothes he had borrowed from the other boy and by that time he was to tired to care; besides, they were warm and the smell was oddly comforting.

Giving the high collar of the shirt a half-hearted tug, Naruto climbed into his bed and pulled the blankets up around his ears and then curled himself up into a tight ball to try and generate some heat. After a while his shivering stopped, his hands finally stopped feeling like they were blocks of ice attached to his arms and he managed to relax a little, letting his tired body fall into a much needed rest.

***

“ _It’s cold.” Naruto breathed on his hands to try and warm them and ended up watching forlornly as his breath vaporized and floated off before it could lend even a little warmth to his frozen fingers. “I take that back; it’s god damned freezing.”_

“ _Learn to persevere, brat.” Naruto looked over at where Jiraiya was bouncing from foot-to-foot, attempting to get some warmth into his blood._

“ _You’re cold too.” Naruto pointed out and Jiraiya gave him a **look**._

“ _Yes.” He said calmly and rubbed his hands together, “But I’m persevering.”_

_Naruto snorted and kicked at a pile of snow. They were in hidden snow country, of all places, because Jiraiya had decided it was time to work on Naruto’s stealth techniques. Why they couldn’t do that back in Konoha, he didn’t know. It was **warm** in Konoha; none of this breath freezing in your lungs before you even got to breath it business._

_The pile of snow Naruto had kicked at grabbed his foot and **pulled** , knocking him off balance and sending him flying onto his backside._

“ _Itai!” What the hell? Since when did piles of snow attack you?_

“ _You took your sweet time.” He heard Jiraiya complain and managed to get himself into enough of a sitting position to see the pile of snow suddenly turn into a man dressed completely in white, a smile on his face as if we **weren’t** freezing his arse off even though he **had** just been immersed in snow._

“ _Jiraiya.” The man greeted and clasped the white-haired man’s hand. “My, your hand is **freezing**!” He said and gestured over his shoulder._

_Instantly another five ‘snow drifts’ stood up. Naruto gawked._

“ _Close your mouth, boy.” Jiraiya said with a smirk, “First we go thaw out, and then you’ll begin to work on your stealth techniques.”_

_Naruto scrambled to his feet and grinned; now **this** would be training!_


	6. Chapter 05

## Chapter Five

  


Naruto and Sasuke trained steadily for a week under the watchful eye of Kakashi. Though they refused to admit it, having the grey-haired  _Jounin_ there helped since he always managed to give hints and tips that the boys’ had overlooked and by the end of that week Sasuke had managed to catch up with the level of power Naruto had used that first day, and surpassed it.

The speed of his improvement _almost_ made Naruto want to hit him…except that he himself was improving, though in different ways than Sasuke was.

Kakashi was late today; a first for the entire week, and Naruto was sitting with his back against the trunk of a large tree, his arms around himself to stay warm and his eyes closed as he tried to catch a few more moments of rest. Sasuke stood a few feet away, his eyes looking off into middle-space as he delved into his own thoughts. Naruto almost jumped out of his skin a while later when Sasuke spoke, breaking the silence.

“I want to train all day today,” he said.

Naruto opened his eyes, his hand going to his chest where it felt like his heart had tried to leap out of it in fright, and stared at Sasuke, “what?”

Sasuke walked the few steps to where Naruto sat and dropped down next to him, one knee drawn up to his chest as he pushed Naruto over so they were sharing the tree trunk, “I’m getting sick of training until lunch time.” He stated. “If this training is supposed to work on my endurance then I should be working towards fighting all day.”

“So?” Naruto questioned and sunk slightly lower in his position, leaning towards Sasuke; he was warm.

“So,” Sasuke explained, his voice tinged with irritation that Naruto was being so dense, “instead of putting your power up today, lower it so we can fight for longer.”

“Oh,” Naruto closed his eyes again. “Sure.” He hadn’t slept much the night before, the dreams he’d been getting on and off for a while now were beginning to increase and he had no less than three different ones the night before, ranging from frightening scenes of the Kyubi to random training.

“That won’t be necessary.” A voice said and Naruto opened his eyes and craned his head upwards to see their wayward teacher staring down at them from a branch above their heads. “Your training changes today.”

***

Naruto stared at the fence that surrounded the Forest of Death then turned and stared at Kakashi again.

“We’re going to train in there?” he said incredulously.

Kakashi rubbed at the side of his nose for a moment, “well, it is an ANBU training area, but Tsunade-sama agreed with me that the two of you could handle it.” He got a glint in his eye and directed it at the two boys, “she’s just as eager as me to see you two raise a rank,” he paused, “unless you don’t think you can handle it.”

“Feh!” Naruto made a dismissive sound, not even gracing the comment with his customary boisterous yelling. He’d spent a lot of time in the Forest of Death thanks to the _Chuunin_ exams he’d done. Admittedly only the first exam and the third exam had involved entering the forest, but between the two visits he’d clocked up nearly three weeks of time spent in there.

“What will we be doing?” Sasuke asked, his eyes watching Kakashi suspiciously.

Kakashi moved his hands to his pockets, “The training will be in mission format and will end if you either reach your goal, or we get to the end of the week; can’t having you _missing_ the _Chuunin_ exam after all, that would defeat the purpose.”

“Mission format?” Sasuke lifted an eyebrow.

“You will be given a scroll. Your ‘mission’ is to get that scroll safely to your assigned destination. Your only ‘orders’ are to get the scroll to your destination no matter what, and not to kill each other. If the scroll is taken from you, then you hunt it down and get it back. Check your weapons, you’ll start soon.”

“What do you _mean_ ‘don’t kill each other’?” Naruto asked suspiciously.

“Oh? Didn’t I mention?” Kakashi said, dropping to a sitting position on the ground and pulling his book out of his pocket, “You won’t be working together, you’ll be working against each other.”

Naruto froze. _That_ changed everything – Kakashi wanted them to survive for a week in the Forest of Death _alone_? And not just alone; but while playing a game of cat-and-mouse with a scroll?

“Fine.” Sasuke agreed immediately and began checking his weapons. Naruto glared at him. Trust Mister Perfect to agree so quickly to something that could kill them. Great.

“Naruto, you’ll enter the forest first.” Kakashi said after a moment, not looking up from his book. “Sasuke will start after you in one hour.”

Naruto glared at the man as he held up a rather mundane looking scroll and then snatched it and put it in his pouch.

“Head to the centre of the forest. If you make it there with the scroll, you win. Sasuke’s job is to get the scroll from you and get it back to the outside of the forest. Have fun.” Kakashi gestured negligently at the forest and Naruto stomped towards it, keeping his senses alert. It’d be just like Sasuke to steal the damned thing from him now and have Naruto running around the forest all day until he realised he didn’t have it any more.

Despite his suspicions, he made it to the edge of the forest without Sasuke trying to sneak the scroll from him and when he looked back briefly he saw Kakashi hold up one finger.

One hour.

Naruto dived into the forest and started heading towards the centre.

***

“Stupid Forest! Stupid Kakashi! Stupid _old hag!_ ” Naruto swung upside down from a length of vine, his arms crossed over his chest as he contemplated his predicament. Most definitely it wasn’t his fault. It was Kakashi and that old-hag-Hokage’s fault that was currently swinging upside-down with all the blood rushing to his head, his foot stuck in a tangle vine with him gently swinging from side-to-side! He wasn’t swinging there because he couldn’t get up, he could get up in a second if he really wanted too, but he was thinking. And cursing, he was doing _lots_ of cursing.

He’d been in the forest for three hours now, and he could already tell that Sasuke was hot on his heels. The dark-haired boy was _very_ good at tracking, and Naruto’s ability to hide his back trail wasn't all that great. In fact, his current predicament was because of Sasuke. He’d gained on Naruto quickly and had gotten so close Naruto was _sure_ he could feel the other boy breathing down his neck. The only reason Sasuke _hadn’t_ caught him was because he’d employed a quick plan involving four clones, a rather large snake and a quick getaway through the treetops. He’d been paying so much attention to what was going on behind him though, that he’d missed a slippery branch ahead of him, had crashed through a patch of wet, slimy foliage, caught his foot in the vines and was now hanging here; thinking.

Sasuke hadn’t followed him yet; if he had have then Naruto would have been staring straight at a superior smirk that would drive him half insane. No smirk had appeared though, so Naruto assumed Sasuke was following one of his clones.

Naruto chewed on his lower lip for a while as he thought and then pulled a kunai out of his leg holster and cut himself free, flipping as he tumbled through the air so that he landed relatively intact on a tree branch a few metres from where he’d been hanging. He had a plan, albeit a hasty one; and it was just in time. A small amount of Chakra returned to him as he landed and he glared. Sasuke had discovered he was chasing a clone.

Glancing around himself to get his bearings, Naruto once again ran off into the forest.

***

Sasuke kept pace with Naruto as he moved.

He’d discovered the clone trick quickly enough and had backtracked to where he’d been led off in the wrong direction and scouted around. He’d found Naruto’s _real_ trail without much effort and had swiftly caught up to the blond; now he was trailing him until they reached a point that would be more advantageous to stealing the scroll.

As they raced through the trees, Sasuke’s eyes raked over Naruto’s form, noting many things in his quick survey. Naruto was filthy. How he’d managed to end up covered head-to-toe in mud, and some sort of greenish slime, when they’d only been in the forest for three hours was beyond Sasuke.

He noted other things during his inspection. Naruto’s forehead protector had been pulled down slightly over his left eye to staunch the blood flow from a minor cut, though some of the blood had trickled down the side of the blond’s face and disappeared into the collar of his jacket, and the left leg of his orange pants had a small tear in it revealing an already healing scratch beneath. Essentially, Naruto was a mess.

“ _Baka_.” Sasuke muttered the word to himself and jumped into the branches on another tree, dodging away from one of Naruto’s quick checks around the area.

The blond had been keeping an eye out behind him, doing pretty well in hiding his back trail from Sasuke as he moved and setting a couple of traps; none of it would help him though, since Sasuke already knew where he was.

Sasuke stopped moving suddenly, becoming completely still, blending into his surroundings and automatically using the _jutsu_ he’d learnt only six-months ago during the time Naruto had been in a coma to hide his _c_ _hakra_ pattern from the boy who had unexpectedly stopped and begun to look around himself.

A moment or two of observation revealed that Naruto was _looking_ for something in particular and Sasuke decided he’d had enough waiting. Whatever Naruto was looking for would have to wait, it was time he went and got the scroll from the boy.

Moving quickly, Sasuke threaded his way through the trees until he was standing directly behind Naruto and dipped his hand into the blond’s pouch, pulling out the scroll, and then retreated again to lean easily against a nearby tree.

“Ahhhh! When the hell did you get here!?” Naruto yelled, almost slipping from his perch on a dead log that was poking up out of the ground, and pointed at Sasuke. “Give that back!”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. He’d already put the scroll in a safe place, Naruto was getting quicker if he could tell that Sasuke had _already_ taken it. Sasuke ignored Naruto’s shouts and asked a question of his own.

“What happened to you?”

Naruto glared. “None of your business.”

Sasuke’s lips twitched. So he’d _slipped_ then; probably because he wasn’t looking where he was going.

“Are you hurt?” He couldn’t help but ask; Naruto didn’t _look_ hurt and Sasuke had observed him long enough to establish that if there had have been anything more serious than the scratch on his head, it had healed already – but he still had to ask.

“I’m _fine_.” Naruto said and crossed his arms over his chest, “Now give me the damned scroll back.” He demanded.

“No.” Sasuke said simply, deciding not to bother trying to deny that he’d taken it, “The point, _dobe_ , is for me to take it from you. If you want it back, come get it.”

With a flick of his wrist, he pulled the scroll out from where he’d hidden it, twirled it around his fingers briefly and then secreted it away again. “Try to catch me before I get to the edge of the forest. This training won’t be any fun if I complete it in less than four hours.”

***

Naruto growled under his breath as Sasuke disappeared into the trees again, taking the scroll with him.  _Arrogant bastard._

He waited.

Then waited some more.

And then held out his right hand, catching the scroll as it dropped from above followed quickly by one of his clones who gave him a cheeky salute before disappearing.

_That_ trick wasn’t going to last long and so Naruto shoved the scroll down his top and simply ran for it. Sasuke would cotton on quickly to what Naruto had done and he didn’t want to be nearby when the dark-haired boy figured it out.

Laughing under his breath, Naruto dodged his way further into the forest and began to work on a new plan.

  


### Forest of Death – Day Two

Naruto had had a restless night. He’d barely slept and every two or three hours he’d felt the need to move from his current position in case Sasuke was still stalking him. It was fun.

Dawn, or what he could see of it through the trees, had him skipping over a pathway of stones poking out of a small river that was flowing in his way and despite the fact that his head felt like it was filled with fluff and air…he was humming happily to himself.

His first course for the morning was to find food, and luckily food dwelt below him at this moment. Threading their way through the rocks Naruto was hopping around, schools of fish lazed amongst the river plants. Naruto had already stripped of most of his clothing and was now only waiting for an opportunity to slip quietly into the water so he could tickle a few of the fish out of the water for his breakfast.

He’d mastered the art for fish tickling over the many missions where he’d been forced to do it over the years and so he soon had two fish gutted, scaled, skewered and merrily roasting over his fire.

He peered at them, turned one so it wouldn’t burn, and then pulled his clothing back on, moving the scroll from where he’d had it hidden in his shorts as he did so. The fire and the fish were risky, if Sasuke were anywhere nearby he’d know where Naruto was instantly, but as Naruto settled back down and began to eat the first fish, he didn’t care. It was warm, perfectly cooked (on one side), and filling. He wasn’t interrupted.

When he finished he hurled the remains of his fish into the river, kicked out the fire and moved the second fish so that it would still benefit a little from the leftover warmth, turned, cheekily saluted one of the trees nearby, and then disappeared into the forest.

A few moments later, Sasuke dropped out of the tree and picked up his breakfast, smiling faintly to himself.

“… _Baka_.”

***

Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit! _Oh, shit_!

Naruto was running. Running _very_ fast. Who knew bugs got that big? Seriously? Worse, who knew they liked to _live_ in hoards in apparently empty clearings?! There were currently at least seven many-legged, many-eyed _things_ after him. He really, _really_ hoped they didn’t eat meat and that they were only chasing after him because he’d fallen out of a tree onto one of them.

Behind him there was a sudden bone chilling, inhuman _screeching_ sound and Naruto slid to a stop, spinning around to see what new _thing_ was getting ready to assault him. …There was nothing.

Literally.

The giant bugs were gone.

Naruto dropped into a defensive stance and then moved back the way he had come, rounding a large fallen tree that he’d barely registered navigating over when he’d been fleeing. He stopped and stared.

Most of the bugs were already dead, or dying. Only two were still up and fighting…and they were fighting Sasuke.

Well damn it, what was he doing here?

Naruto glared and dropped into a sitting position, watching as Sasuke fried the living hell out of the final two bug-things with a well-thrown fire jutsu. Damn that bastard, he was always looking for opportunities to show off; Naruto hadn’t _needed_ help. The blond’s glare grew fiercer.

“ _Oi_ , _dobe_ ; are you injured?” Sasuke moved so he was standing over Naruto and Naruto glared up at him.

“We’re supposed to be _fighting_ each other, you know! Not helping!”

Sasuke smirked and shoved his hands in his pockets, “I wasn’t saving you.” He said, “I was saving the scroll.”

“Bastard!” Naruto leapt to his feet and swung his fist at Sasuke, determined to wipe the arrogant smirk off his face, but suddenly found himself facing the other way, his arms being held behind him and his face pressed against a tree. “Itai!”

“That’s no way to thank your saviour, you know.” Naruto could positively _feel_ the smirk aimed at the back of his head.

“Shut up, bastard! I didn’t need your help!”

“Of course not.” The smirk had grown wider; Naruto just _knew_ it. “But since I _did_ help, I should get a reward.”

The words were breathed into Naruto’s ear as Sasuke had moved so he was pressed flush up against the blond and the hand that wasn’t holding Naruto’s arms behind his back had snaked up under Naruto’s jacket and was moving across his stomach.

“Nani!?” _Nani!!?_

“Well, it’s only _fair_.” Sasuke insisted, his voice low and so close that his lips brushed against the shell of Naruto’s ear. The hand moved slightly higher and then suddenly disappeared. “This will do.”

Naruto was abruptly released and he spun around in time to see Sasuke flip the scroll in his hand and smirk again.

“Try not to get into any more trouble.” Sasuke said and then walked into the forest, putting the scroll away as he moved.

Naruto stood still, his back against the tree behind him as he stared, wide eyed, at where the other boy had disappeared. Slowly he lifted a hand to push his protector higher on his forehead and realised that, unaccountably (since he hadn’t done  _any_ proper fighting), his cheeks were incredibly hot.

***

Sasuke disappeared into the forest quickly, taking to the trees the first moment it became convenient and began to head back towards the outside. How long would it take Naruto to get his wits back and begin to chase him? Probably not long. Sasuke felt his lips twitch in an almost smile; and when Naruto  _did_ start chasing he would be  _mad_ .

Still, it was worth it, if only because of the bewildered expression Naruto had sported; or better yet, the intense flush.

Sasuke checked the scroll was still in his pocket at least seven times as he ran through the trees. It was only after he’d been running for nearly two hours that he finally accepted that Naruto hadn’t managed to pull a trick like the _last_ one and that the scroll was going to stay where it was. Now he just had to remain hidden.

  


### Forest of Death – Day Three

Sasuke splashed his face with cold water from a stream, letting his fingers trail back into his hair to get it out of the way, and then wiped away the excess water with his sleeve.

Slightly more revived, he retied his headband around his forehead and stood up, his ears alert for any kind of movement around him. Naruto still hadn’t caught up to him, at least not that he knew of, and he was having to fight with himself over the urge to double back and _check_ that the _dobe_ hadn’t gotten himself into more trouble, and the fact that he had to follow his ‘mission’ orders.

He tapped his fingertips against his upper leg for a while and then shook his head. He’d follow his orders and head towards the edge of the forest, but if Naruto hadn’t shown up by lunchtime then Sasuke was going to double back a little.

After all, he reasoned, this would be pointless as a training exercise if one of them failed to return.

***

It was revenge, Naruto decided. Sasuke had been getting revenge for the entire shower incident while fulfilling his mission by getting the scroll.

Well fine. Naruto could handle that; but like hell he’d let Sasuke get away with the scroll.

…Problem was, he had sort of _lost_ him.

He had managed to follow Sasuke’s trail as it led up into the trees, and had even gotten as far as finding where the boy had camped for the night; but not far beyond that the trail disappeared. Now Naruto was a little lost.

Just a little.

Plopping himself down where he stood on a tree branch, Naruto rested his head on his hand and thought. If _he_ were Sasuke, what would _he_ have done once he reached that stream? He had already searched up and down the banks in case Sasuke had used the water to mask his tracks. He hadn’t.

Naruto had also examined just about every tree in the vicinity for any tell-tale marks saying Sasuke had gone back to his preferred tree branch road. Nothing.

So where had he _gone_?!

A few minutes later, Naruto dropped from his branch and began to stalk his way around the stream’s tree line. If Sasuke hadn’t taken the treetops, and he hadn’t taken the river, then there was only one way he could have gone; he’d walked.

***

Sasuke stopped his headlong run along the treetops and, with a quick look around to check for wild creatures, dropped down to the forest floor and paused.

There was an hour to go till lunchtime, but Naruto still hadn’t shown himself.

He wasn’t worried.

…Okay, he was worried. Naruto had a bad habit of getting himself into the most insane situations (the giant bugs from the day before being point and case of that fact) and Sasuke found himself finding it _only too easy_ to think up reasons why the blond hadn’t shown himself yet.

It took him a moment to realise, but his feet had already begun to take him back the way he’d come. Lips tight with annoyance as he attempted to ignore the faint twinges of worry that tightened his chest, Sasuke headed in the wrong direction for completing his ‘mission’ and began to search for the missing  _dobe_ .

***

Naruto sat in the shelter of a long dead, much nature mangled, tree and gnawed on a piece of fruit he’d gathered earlier that morning. It was some time passed lunch now so he felt he deserved the rest for food…even if he hadn’t found Sasuke yet.

_Bastard_ ! Had he already reached the edge of the forest? Was that why Naruto couldn’t catch up to him? But he hadn’t thought they were that close to the edges, he’d been heading steadily  _inwards_ after all.

Naruto growled and chucked the large seed from the centre of his eaten fruit out of his hiding place. Sasuke had to be hiding…or something. As far as Naruto could tell, his path had been fairly steady, no deviations and no tricks. Even Sasuke couldn’t keep up a fake trail this long, so it had to be the right one. Naruto was just being slow, that was the problem.

Naruto blinked suddenly as something about his surroundings suddenly registered to him. He could here growling…and snuffling. Sinister growling and snuffling.

Naruto poked his head out of his hole.

And then poked it straight back in again and pushed himself as far backwards as his hidey-hole would allow him to go.

That was one _big_ cow.

At least he assumed it was a cow.

Did cows have tusks though? And razor-sharp, lethal-looking saliva-dripping teeth? And claws, he was _sure_ he’d seen claws.

Another thought occurred to him, rather logical considering what he’d already noticed. Did giant cows with tusks, teeth and claws eat meat? Cows _normally_ ate grass, right? _Right?_

But these were _ANBU_ cows (since they were in an ANBU training area); maybe ANBU cows ate meat. They looked like they ate meat.

Oh _hell_! It was coming closer to where Naruto was hidden; he could _hear_ it.

How good was a cow’s sense of smell? Did ANBU cows have super noses like they had super teeth?

The snuffling grew louder. Looked like he was about to find out.

Naruto stayed as still as he could, every muscle in his body tense as he waited for the super ANBU cow to rip through his thin protection and rip him to shreds.

And then the cow swore.

Naruto blinked.

The cow swore again and then there was a loud crash, like if something big and heavy had come crashing down out of the sky, hitting every branch on the way down and collecting a few vines, leaves, random birds nests and bugs as it went.

Then there was silence.

Then the cow screamed in rage.

Hearing the sounds of the cow suddenly moving away Naruto pushed himself forward and looked carefully out of his hiding place.

He swore.

It was Sasuke.

Sasuke, clutching desperately at a tree branch as he attempted to swing himself properly up onto it with only one arm while attempting to stay out of the way of an enraged super ANBU cow.

It would have been amusing but for two things.

Sasuke’s grip was slick with blood and he was in great danger of falling, and his right arm was broken, hanging uselessly at his side.

Naruto swore again. Judging from the look of him, the thing that had been swearing and falling hadn’t been the cow, it had been Sasuke. Naruto launched himself out of his hiding place almost immediately, grabbed a large, solid looking stick as he flew passed it and threw himself at the devil cow, smacking it on the rump as hard as he could with the stick.

The stick snapped in half the instant it connected and Naruto dropped what was left in disgust as he stepped backwards. He might have spared a thought towards the uselessness of the stick, and in fact would have ranted at it in any other situation, however right then he was suddenly looking into the red glinting eyes of an enraged super ANBU devil cow that had just been smacked in the rump with a stick. Understandably only one thought crossed his mind.

Oh-my-fucking-god-I’m-going-to-die!

He ran for it. With an irate cow nearly breathing down his neck, Naruto moved faster than he ever thought he could, scrambled up a tree and clung desperately to a branch as the crazy beast began to rip at the trunk with its tusks, shaking the tree violently with every impact.

What the hell _was_ this thing? _**Rabid**_?!

Naruto clutched his branch a little more desperately and then remembered Sasuke. He looked across the clearing…and swore again.

Sasuke was on the ground now, barely managing to keep his feet, his back pressed up against the tree he’d been attempting to get into earlier, and his eyes were wide and slightly dazed.

_Fuck_ …he must have hit his head.

Glancing back down at the devil cow, Naruto frowned. Stupid Sasuke, now his only choice was to figure out how to kill this thing – he wouldn’t be able to check on Sasuke’s injuries, or get them both to safety, if he didn’t.

Killer tusks, teeth and claws armed the thing from the front, and skin thick enough to have snapped his stick earlier guarded the rest of it. What the hell was he supposed to do?

Naruto made a sound halfway between irritation and abject fear before letting go of his branch and engaging in a controlled fall out of the tree. His hands moved, creating seals, as he fell and soon there were eight more of himself falling with him.

He hit the ground hard; ducking into a roll as he landed and, moving right passed the hell bovine, let his clones distract the beast while he headed straight for Sasuke.

“Sasuke?” he demanded, urgently.

Sasuke’s head jerked up and he blinked at Naruto, struggling to make his eyes focus. “I…I think I hit my head.” He said, very slowly and precisely. “I can’t stand up without everything spinning.”

Naruto winced, not just from Sasuke words. Already three clones were down.

“We have to move.” He said, “Now. That devil cow will run out of clones soon and I don’t want to be the next thing it sees.”

Sasuke managed a slight nod and pushed himself away from the tree, immediately staggering into Naruto and clutching at him to keep from falling.

Naruto resisted the urge to swear again. Now that he was close enough he could see that Sasuke had _a lot_ more injuries than he’d first suspected. The blood all over his left hand and arm was from a cut in his side and he was covered in other cuts and livid purple marks that spoke of heavy impact. There was also a rather deep cut across one of his temples that was sluggishly oozing blood down his face and neck and soaking into the collar of his shirt.

_Fuck_ .

“What the hell happened to you?” Naruto demanded as he pulled Sasuke’s good arm over his shoulders and began to drag the other boy out of the clearing.

Sasuke stared fixedly at his feet, concentrating on putting one in front of the other without crashing to the ground and taking Naruto with him.

“Fell. Landed on it. Bit of a bitch to fight, nearly ripped my arm off.” He said finally.

“You _fought_ that thing?!” Naruto said and glanced over his shoulder as he felt another clone disappear. They’d need to take to the trees soon, or they’d never get out of the things reach. How he was supposed to do that while gripping onto Sasuke though, was a mystery – this guy was heavier than he looked.

“Di’n’t have a choice.” Sasuke’s speech was beginning to slur and Naruto looked at him in concern, “Coul’n’t get up into the trees. To far. Ha-Had to fight till I got close enough. Tough.”

Sasuke looked like he was about to pass out. Naruto shook him slightly.

“Oi! Don’t go to sleep. You might have a concussion or something. Can’t you heal yourself up a bit?”

Sasuke snapped his head up, forcing himself to keep his unfocused eyes open. “Can’t. Need to conse’trate.”

Well that wasn’t good. Naruto suddenly hissed in a breath and stopped walking. There was only one clone left and they hadn’t gotten far enough away from the clearing at all.

“Sasuke, I’m going to jump into the trees. Try and hold on, and keep your balance.” He stared at the dark-haired boy whose head was sagging again, “…Or something.”

Pulling Sasuke closer to him, he wrapped both of his arms around the other boy and then channelled chakra into his legs and _jumped_.

It was only by luck and by desperately channelling chakra into his back to stick to the tree that kept them where they landed. Breathing heavily and trying to untense his muscles, Naruto stood on a sturdy branch and stayed where he was with his back Chakra-stuck to the tree trunk behind him. Sasuke was lying limply in his arms, head resting awkwardly on Naruto’s shoulder.

He’d passed out.

Naruto resisted the urge to swear for the millionth time in as many minutes and slowly sunk into a sitting position. His last clone had disappeared as they’d jumped and he could feel the Chakra of the devil cow coming closer. It was probably following the smell of blood.

Well this was just great. Naruto readjusted his and Sasuke’s positions, wrapping both his legs around Sasuke’s waist so he could keep the other boy in the tree without his hands and spared a glance towards the ground. The cow-thing appeared a few moment’s later.

He needed a plan. No, he _really_ needed a plan. As in _really, really,_ _ **really**_ needed a plan. Maybe if he ignored it it’d go away?

The cow-thing came to a stop directly where he and Sasuke had jumped and began to growl slightly, snuffling at the ground. Naruto held his breath.

He was fairly sure, later on, that the damned thing would have given up and left if it hadn’t have been for one stupid, _stupid_ little thing. Something that they couldn’t avoid and that Naruto, _**stupidly**_ , hadn’t thought of.

A drop of blood, from one of Sasuke’s many wounds, dropped onto the things head.

Instantly it ‘s head came up and it’s beady little eyes had rolled upwards and spotted them in their tree. It attacked.

Naruto grit his teeth as he focused on holding Sasuke securely and on keeping his Chakra flow constant so he didn’t suddenly un-stick from the tree and tumble on the things head. Why wouldn’t it just go _away_?!

Probably because Sasuke was injured, wild animals sensed easy meals in wounded creatures, didn’t they?

Naruto glared over Sasuke’s shoulder and down at the psycho super cow. Well like hell he was going to let it eat Sasuke; he was going to smack that thing from here to next week and then back again and then he was going to eat _it_!

Naruto wiggled his arms slightly, pulling Sasuke as tight against his chest as he could, and then began to make signs behind Sasuke’s back. Two clones suddenly popped into being on the tree-limb beside them.

Instantly they dropped into sitting positions, making themselves secure and then Naruto carefully transferred Sasuke over to them.

“Don’t you _dare_ drop him!” he commanded fiercely to the clones and then threw himself out of the tree. He landed right on the devil cows back.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Was about all he managed to yell as the beast began to wildly buck around, bashing itself against the surrounding trees, trampling foliage and swinging it’s head around and almost taking Naruto out with it’s long tusks twice. Well _that_ hadn’t been a good idea.

Naruto launched himself off of the thing and clung to another tree for a moment and concentrated, drawing out his and the Kyubi’s Chakra. No more mister nice ninja, he was going to pummel that thing into mincemeat!

The fight didn’t go quite the way he’d planned it and by the time he’d finally managed to kill the thing with a _Rasengan_ smack in the nose, he’d lost a lot of Chakra, sprained his ankle, earned a spectacular bruise that covered the entire left side of his body and completely ruined his jacket.

Breathing hard, Naruto kicked the dead cow in the side and then slumped to the ground in exhaustion. A moment later his two clones, carrying Sasuke, dropped down next to him.

Naruto nodded at them to put Sasuke down and as soon as they had they disappeared, their Chakra returning to Naruto and helping him find the energy to sit up and begin to rip what was left of his jacket to pieces and begin to bandage Sasuke’s more obvious wounds.

The dark-haired boy had stopped bleeding some time during the fight, which Naruto was grateful for, and so it was now only a matter of finding water to clean him up a bit.

That was _if_ Naruto could make him wake up.

“Bastard!” Naruto gripped Sasuke’s left shoulder and shook him, “Damn it, bastard! Wake up. You shouldn’t be sleeping right now and we need to do something about your arm. Sasuke! _Sasuke!_ ”

It took nearly ten full minutes of shaking, prodding and eventual cautious poking at his injuries to get Sasuke to fuzzily open his eyes. Naruto ignored the sense of absolute relief he felt and shook him a little more and forced him to sit up.

“Come on, bastard. Wake up properly.”

Sasuke blinked more but obediently sat up, wincing as he did so.

“I feel,” he said after a few moments of half sitting up and half laying on Naruto, “like I’ve been hit by a herd of horses.”

“Close.” Naruto said and thumped the carcass behind them, “No worries though; I hit it back.” His expression changed and he carefully helped Sasuke sit up further. “We need to do something with your arm, we can’t leave it like that.”

Sasuke looked down at his arm in surprise, his eyes brows lifting as he noticed that it was most certainly on an angle it shouldn’t be. “I can’t feel a thing.”

“Good.” Naruto moved the arm slightly and Sasuke’s eyes suddenly rolled back in his head and he went limp. “Err…Sasuke?” he shook the boy again, “Sasuke?!”

Sasuke came around again a few moments later and Naruto glared at him.

“I thought you said you couldn’t feel it!”

Sasuke scowled, his eyes clearer now and his normal mood returning, “I couldn’t, till you moved it.”

Naruto glared back and changed his position, “Well I’m going to have to move it again; it needs to be set. I got some wood while you were taking your little beauty rest so we can snap it back into place _any_ time now.”

Sasuke grit his teeth, even as his eyes narrowed at Naruto’s terminology, and he leaned back against the body of the hell cow, his left hand coming up to gently hold his right arm and to brace it. “Hurry up then.” He commanded.

  


### Forest of Death – Day Four

Sasuke had passed out again as soon as Naruto had told him it was alright to let go of his arm and had stayed that way for the rest of the night and for the entire morning afterwards, and for part of the afternoon as well, despite Naruto’s best efforts to make events otherwise.

By the time Sasuke finally came around, Naruto had located a stream, had cleaned every loose piece of fabric he could find, cleaned Sasuke’s wounds and re-bandaged them, given himself a good cleaning and checked his own wounds, which were healing much to slowly as far as he was concerned, and then used a kunai to hack the devil cow to pieces and started cooking it.

He relished every single moment of it, and had been delighted to find that roasted over a fire it tasted wonderful. When Sasuke had finally woken up and had something to eat, he’d agreed.

“How far away from the edge of the forest do you think we are?” Naruto asked as he watched Sasuke slowly poking at his various wounds and bruises from across the small fire he’d made to cook the hell beast over.

Sasuke looked up at him slowly, careful of his head, “Barely a day, if we were perfectly healthy. Probably three the way we are.”

Naruto cursed and dropped his gaze to the fire and poked it with a stick. “Kakashi-Sensei isn’t going to be happy; we’ll miss the exam. We can’t enter injured.”

Sasuke made a sound of agreement.

Naruto continued to stare into the fire. The flames were sort of hypnotising, though that might have been because he hadn’t slept since the day before. He’d had to stay up the entire time that Sasuke was passed out and even now he didn’t trust himself to sleep on the off chance they were attacked by something. Sasuke wouldn’t be able to do much, in the condition he was in.

“We should start moving.” Naruto said after a while, ripping his eyes away from the enticing glow at the end of the stick he was playing with, “We’ll get into as much trouble staying here as we will moving, so we might as well move.”

Sasuke nodded agreement and pulled himself slowly to his feet.

Naruto had had the foresight to cook as much of the devil cow meat as possible and so, while Sasuke carefully put out the fire, Naruto wrapped as much of the meat as they could carry in the freshly clean, and still slightly damp rags of his jacket and they put it in their pouches. Naruto doubted they’d be able to do much in the way of hunting as they made their way out of the forest, so this food would be all they had till then.

Leaving the rest of the carcass behind, Naruto and Sasuke began to stumble their way through the forest; Naruto doing most of the scouting work as they moved. Sasuke still looked hazy around the edges, even if when he’d woken up he’d seemed to be no where near as badly off as he’d been the night before; Naruto spent as much time watching Sasuke as he did their surroundings.

That was probably how come they ended up in the situation that they did.

The sun had been beginning to go down and around them the trees had begun to thin. They _knew_ they weren’t anywhere near the edge of the forest so they’d moved carefully forward in hopes of a clearing and that’s exactly what they’d found.

It wasn’t so much a clearing as a large patch of open ground, littered with rocks and boulders. Naruto’s overstrained mind managed to wonder, for a fleeting second, where the rocks had _come_ from before they had staggered out into the clearing to look around. Everything had looked clear. There hadn’t been a single beast, monster, bug, bird or even a squirrel around. That probably should have warned them, and if they had have been in better condition, it might have.

As it was they decided it was a better place than any to stop and they slouched down between two rocks, huddled together for a little warmth, chewed half-heartedly at some of the meat they’d brought with them, and gone to sleep.

Rather, Sasuke had gone to sleep. Naruto still persistently refused too. He forced his eyes to stay open as Sasuke’s head fell on his shoulder and he forced himself to look around them for danger, ignoring his body’s insistent screaming for rest.

That was what saved their lives.

The night was well under way and Naruto was in an iron battle over the weight of his eyelids when he suddenly saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his eyes fully open immediately and moved his head to look around them. His eyes met another pair, shining yellow out of the darkness. He went completely still.

It was about that moment that he realised they were completely surrounded and as he carefully turned his head around, other sets of backlit yellow eyes appeared from the darkness. Naruto poked Sasuke in the side. Hard.

Eyelashes fluttered against the side of Naruto’s neck and he scowled, poking Sasuke in the side again.

He risked talking, his voice sounding awfully loud in the deadening silence around them. “Sasuke. _Fuck it_. Sasuke, wake up! We’re surrounded.”

Sasuke’s eyes flashed open in a second and he went completely tense. “By what?” he asked quietly.

“Damned if I know!” Naruto said with annoyance, “All I can see is yellow eyes.”

Sasuke slowly lifted his head from Naruto’s shoulder and both of their heads snapped forward as _something_ stepped out of the darkness, growling.

It was at that moment that the weak excuse for a moon decided to flash out from behind a cloud and the two ninja were greeted by the sight of the largest cats they’d ever seen, a breed of much overfed tiger, who were glaring down at them from the rocks that rose up around them with feral menace.

Naruto didn’t even bother swearing. He was beyond swearing. He was beyond shock as well. His body felt like a lead weight, keeping him firmly stuck in place and about all he could manage at that moment was to raise an eyebrow half-heartedly. He was staring death in the face, and for some bizarre reason…he didn’t care.

But then Sasuke moved slightly and Naruto seemed to snap out of his lethargy. Death might not be bothering _him_ at the moment, but obviously Sasuke wasn’t going to be to pleased with the idea. Naruto pushed himself away from his rock and staggered to his feet as the predatory yellow eyes around them tracked his every movement.

“What the hell are you doing?” Sasuke demanded as Naruto positioned himself between Sasuke and the giant tigers, digging some kunai out of his weapons pouch.

“Fighting.” Naruto said as he forced his tired body to stand up straight, “Stay still.”

“Like hell I…”

“Don’t _move_!” Naruto snapped, “You can’t fight in your condition, you can barely stand.”

“Neither can _you_.”

Naruto paused then shrugged, “More than you.” He said quietly and turned his head slightly as the animals around him began to move, closing in.

The first one attacked fast and from the left. Stepping backwards, Naruto managed to dodge most of it’s attack, suffering only a scratch along the length of his left arm, and he returned the favour by slicing the kunai in his right hand down the cats side as it passed him.

Hot blood dripped down over his hand, warming him slightly and making his hand sticky. The great cat screamed its pain angrily and whirled as soon as it landed, flying through the air again at Naruto, this time with better aiming.

Naruto hit the ground, a weight atop him for a moment before it scrambled off and pulled him up. Sasuke had knocked him over to avoid the tiger’s leap. Naruto glared at him.

“I thought I told you not to move.” He growled.

Sasuke ignored him and pulled his own kunai out.

“You can’t fight them alone.” He said simply and threw a kunai into the darkness. He was rewarded by an angry, pained sound.

Naruto didn’t even have time to reply. He couldn’t keep up with the fight, he was barely managing to survive it and after a while he became painfully aware that the beasts were _playing_ with him. _Playing with their food before they ate it_.

He was leaking blood from a dozen wounds, probably more, and his ankle, which had healed enough for him to walk properly, had been sprained again because of a misstep. He’d almost completely lost Sasuke during the fighting and now his one, single minded thought was too get his way through the endless sea of enemies and find him.

These cats, these _animals_ were probably playing with Sasuke, just as they were playing with Naruto, but the blond had to be sure. If Sasuke was still alive there was a chance… Naruto had to figure out a way to get Sasuke out alive; he just had to find him first.

And so he fought. And he fought. And he struggled. And eventually he had managed to gain some headway in the direction he’d last seen Sasuke fighting.

It was a pure fluke that Naruto happened to look to his right at that moment. Also it was only luck that made one of the great cats move away from where it had been standing to reveal Sasuke, one hand clutched over the reopened wound in his side, with blood oozing from between his fingers and seeping from a set of cuts that had ripped parallel wounds across his chest. As far as Naruto could tell, Sasuke’s shirt was more damaged than his chest, but in the darkness all he could see was blood.

The cats were tiring of their game by now, and Naruto knew it. Of the two of them at that moment, Sasuke was the weakest. Naruto saw the flash of movement. The creature heading towards Sasuke wasn’t playing this time. Naruto moved.

He hit Sasuke in the side, balling him over and into the middle of a tight ring of high rocks. The cat that had been heading at Sasuke stopped its attack and Naruto scrambled to his knees, forcing Sasuke to stay on his back as he straddled him and looked out from behind the rocks.

He needed to do something, they couldn’t continue like this. He needed something that would take them all out together, something that meant they wouldn’t have to fight any more, something strong, something… _something_.

_A fire jutsu_ . The thought came to him, probably because of what he’d been studying in Sasuke’s scrolls lately. Animals hate fire, right?! A fire  jutsu would save them. A fire jutsu.  _Fire_ …

Naruto closed his eyes and pulled out as much of the Kyubi’s power as he could manage.

_Fire…_

***

Sasuke couldn’t breath. Naruto was sitting on his ribs, making it difficult for him to inhale, but after a moment of struggling he managed to free himself enough to take a gasp of air.

He’d been standing against a tallish rock, watching as one of the large cats had begun to run at him, when he’d suddenly been tackled from the side and knocked into the position he was in.

He started up at the boy sitting on him, and ignored the myriad aches, pains and agonies around his body. Naruto had his eyes closed, his expression blank. What the hell was he doing? Did it matter?

They were completely surrounded and if Naruto had even twice the Chakra and stamina left that Sasuke did; it still wouldn’t have been enough to save them from even _one_ of the creatures that had attacked them. Struggling was futile; they were going to die.

The admittance wasn’t easy for Sasuke, he still had things to do, things to learn. He had strength to gain and above all, he had to kill Itachi – but he knew a hopeless situation when he saw one. There was _nothing_ they could do.

Sasuke continued to stare up at Naruto who had begun to move his hands in a complicated set of jutsu that Sasuke didn’t recognise a single one of. Sasuke ignored the signs and focused on Naruto’s face. The boy looked, of all things, relaxed. His long eyelashes gently brushed against his cheeks as they flickered slightly; his forehead protector had come loose and had been lost somewhere so his fringe was hanging down low and would probably have been in Naruto’s eyes, if it hadn’t been stuck in place by something. Probably blood.

As Sasuke watched, the already pronounced whisker marks on Naruto’s cheeks grew wider, becoming more like strips.

Other than that, there wasn’t a single other mark on Naruto’s face. Sasuke let his lips twitch upwards slightly. If _this_ was how he was going to die, he decided, then so long as he could see Naruto maybe it wasn’t so bad.

That’s when Naruto’s eyes flashed open.

Sasuke started, his own eyes going wide.

Naruto’s eyes were red, deep red. That was fine, he had begun to grow accustomed to that; however the consciousness that looked down at Sasuke out of Naruto’s eyes…wasn’t Naruto.

Sasuke had barely a moment to contemplate that thought, before Naruto turned slightly and the world exploded.

And over and above that explosion was one thing: Naruto’s voice.

“ _ **Kinjutsu! Hibashira Zenkai!** ”_

The world was wreathed in fire.


	7. Chapter 06

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who asked, the translation for the move Naruto used last chapter is ' _Forbidden Technique: Complete destruction fire pillar_ '.

## Chapter Six

  


Darkness. Sasuke’s head throbbed as he came back from whatever  hell-hole his mind had suddenly been dragged into and he gratefully clawed his way towards consciousness.

He opened his eyes and then shut them again.

And then they snapped back open as what he’d seen registered to him.

 _Fire._ Fire everywhere.

Towering above him, high into the air, was a funnel of flame. It twisted around like some kind of demented, burning tornado consuming the oxygen around them in droves and nearly sucking the air out of his lungs. The noise was tremendous and the heat was rapidly becoming unbearable.

 _What the hell…?_ He must have only passed out for a few seconds, he realised.

Changing the focus of his eyes, Sasuke moved his wide-eyed gaze to the one who had spawned the spinning pillar of fire. Naruto still sat on Sasuke’s chest, and he was twisted around slightly, looking at his handy work.

Though, as Sasuke watched, Naruto suddenly spun back around and threw himself down over Sasuke.

“ _Shut your eyes!_ ” he yelled over the sound of the roaring fire above them. Sasuke didn’t even think; just did it. Something in the voice, Naruto’s voice, but not, compelled him to obey instantly.

He was glad he did.

Even as he closed his eyes, he saw the fire twister give a sudden shuddering heave as if it were breathing inwards…

…And then the sky was raining fire.

Sasuke felt his arms sting as it dropped on him and he suddenly rolled sideways, doing his best to get himself and, more importantly, Naruto out of the way of the flaming rain by getting as close to the rocks around them as possible.

His heart was in his throat as he clutched Naruto to him tightly, burying his head in the others shoulder and waited; waited for the stinging pains across his back to stop and for the light on the other side of his eyelids to stop glowing so unnaturally red. It seemed to take forever.

Sasuke remained still for a while after the stinging, the light and intense heat stopped, but eventually he loosened his grip on his blond companion and looked over his shoulder. The night was still lit unnaturally. Everywhere around him there were patches of burning grass and next to him the rocks were blackened.

Sasuke shuddered and fell back. It was then that he realised that Naruto hadn’t moved since the twister had exploded.

His hands shaking slightly, Sasuke quickly checked the blond’s pulse and then, finding it normal, he checked him over for injuries. There were a few, but most of them were healing rapidly. Sasuke let out an exhausted sigh of relief and sat up.

And stared, his mouth dropping open unnoticed.

The forest was gone.

_Gone_ . 

Everywhere there were patches of fire, and further off, towards the edges of the forest there were raging fires where trees that had survived the initial explosion were rapidly being decimated.

Sasuke began to shake.

This was too much. Really. What the hell had happened? _What_?! What was it that had been looking out of Naruto’s eyes? Had it been the Kyubi? So much destruction…Naruto couldn’t have done this, couldn’t have pulled off a jutsu of this scale. It had to have been the Kyubi.

Something moved.

Sasuke’s head snapped around as the movement caught his eye and he found himself suddenly staring at a fully alert ANBU squad.

 _Of course…_ Unsurprising. The largest training area in the Konoha region had just exploded; Sasuke felt an overwhelming urge to laugh. Of _course_ there were ANBU here.

As he watched, four more groups of mask clad ANBU appeared and stationed themselves at various points around them. Along with them came other shinobi; every last one of them was armed at ready for combat.

Sasuke lifted one shaking hand and pushed his forehead protector slightly higher on his head. He felt the movement tracked by a hundred eyes. What would they assume had happened? Would they be guessing? Or would they wait to hear their story? They’d laugh when they heard it. Sasuke wanted to laugh. It was funny. Really, it was.

Sasuke let his eyes travel over the faces of the people watching and his mouth turned into a firm frown. The looks he was seeing in their eyes…they _weren_ _’t_ funny. What did they think had happened? They had hatred in their eyes. Anger. Contempt. Fury. Loathing.

They were looking at Naruto.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed suddenly. What the hell did they think they were doing, looking at Naruto like that? Who did they think they were? Naruto had just saved his life, why were they looking at him with hatred?

Someone hesitantly stepped forward and Sasuke staggered to his feet, his eyes set into what he hoped was a glare. It was, but had more the quality of a half crazed man suddenly pushed the rest of the way over the edge. His hands still shook slightly, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Stay away,” he said, then realised it probably wasn’t loud enough. “ _Stay away!_ ”

The one who had been approaching stopped and suddenly a second person stepped forward.

“Uchiha-kun, we’re here to help. It’s okay now, you don’t have to fight.”

Sasuke didn’t recognise the voice. It didn’t matter; he wouldn’t have listened even if he had. He didn’t respond to the voice, he responded to the eyes – those eyes filled with contempt…contempt for Naruto.

“Stay _away_!” he repeated and shakily used his left hand to pull a kunai from his belt pouch, “ you’re not here to help. Stay away.”

The second person took another step forward, “Uchiha-kun….”

“ _ **I said stay away!**_ ” Sasuke shouted and his eyes flashed red. Energy, the energy he couldn’t seem to find earlier, surged up in him as he activated his Sharingan and glared wildly at the men who had been approaching. “How can you say you want to help, with those eyes? _Those eyes!_ You want to hurt him, I won’t let you, if you want near him you’ll have to go through me; I won’t let you near him. Stay away!” he wouldn’t let these…these _people_ near Naruto. These people, they were the ones who always made Naruto so unhappy. Theirs were the looks that could suddenly steal the smile from his lips just by passing him in the street. And they said they wanted to help? Liars , all of them. He wouldn’t let them near him. Naruto was his saviour, Naruto was his light; and Naruto had saved him, saved them _both,_ from certain death. He wouldn’t let anyone with those eyes near him.

The man took another step forward and Sasuke put his kunai in his mouth, then pulled two shuriken from his leg holster and threw them quickly, forcing the man to stop walking again, or be hit. He took the kunai back in his hand.

“Stay. Away,” he growled again and this time the man seemed to listen, taking a step backwards.

There was a stir suddenly to the right and Sasuke watched out of the corner of his eye as a small group appeared in front of the crowd.

“What’s going on here?” a familiar voice demanded.

Sasuke turned a little to view Kakashi more easily. He stared at the man’s eyes.

“Hatake-san!” The first man to approach moved quickly to stand near Kakashi and saluted, “Uchiha-kun refuses to let us near. We’re not sure…”

Kakashi ignored everything after that and stepped closer to Sasuke, his eyes meeting Sasuke’s gaze firmly.

“Sasuke.”

Somehow Kakashi managed to layer the simple name with a hundred different inflections, the main ones being ‘what the fuck are you doing?’, ‘what the _hell_ is going on?’ and ‘are you a lunatic?’.

“Naruto,” Sasuke responded and watched as Kakashi’s eyes flickered down to the unconscious boy. Concern, irritation, confusion. Nothing else. Sasuke relaxed slightly.

“Make them go away,” Sasuke said fiercely, levelling a not-quite-sane glare on his teacher and then at those surrounding them. “Make them leave him alone; he didn’t do anything.”

“Hatake-san….” The man who had originally approached said nervously and Kakashi waved him to silence and resumed his intent staring contest with Sasuke.

“Why?”

Sasuke growled, “they’re _looking_ at him. You can _see_ them looking, you can read what they’re thinking; it’s in their eyes. He didn’t do anything. Make them _leave_.”

Kakashi stayed still for a moment and then stepped backwards and turned to the man behind him, “you heard him, everyone leave. Now.”

“But…”

“No ‘buts’. And while you’re at it, fetch the Hokage.”

“…H-hai!”

Around him, ANBU and random shinobi began to hesitantly disappear and Sasuke relaxed marginally. With a breath he allowed whatever power had been fuelling his Sharingan to dissipate, and let himself fall down next to Naruto. He rested a hand lightly on the blond’s singed hair and petted it absently.

“Sasuke,” the dark-haired boy lifted his head again and looked over at where Kakashi was standing with two others. Gai and Iruka-Sensei. The one who had spoken was Iruka, “is Naruto hurt?”

Sasuke looked into his eyes and saw only concern, and desperate worry.

“Not really. Just tired,” his voice almost sounded normal.

Iruka took a hesitant step forward, his mouth opening to ask another question, but was forestalled as a new person arrived. The Hokage.

She met Sasuke’s eyes instantly.

“What’s going on here?” she demanded and strode forward, towards where he sat next to Naruto.

Sasuke remained silent. Did she hate Naruto, too? If she did, could Sasuke hope to keep her away from him? His hand tightened on Naruto’s hair protectively and the Hokage stopped walking.

“What happened?” she asked, a little more softly.

“Nothing,” Sasuke said firmly. “He didn’t do anything.”

Tsunade nodded. “I didn’t say he did,” she said soothingly, “I just wanted to know what happened, not who did it.”

Sasuke hesitated. “We were attacked,” he said at length. “He saved my life. Both of our lives. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

The Hokage nodded again, “can I have a look at him?”

“He’s fine.”

Tsunade began to walk forward again, slowly, “I’m sure he is, but I want to make sure. I think everyone here would feel better if I made sure.”

Sasuke studied her for a moment and then let his eyes flick behind her to where Iruka hovered anxiously. He nodded.

Tsunade smiled and came the rest of the way over, kneeling next to Naruto and resting her fingers lightly on the boy’s temples. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again, nodding.

“You’re right. He’s fine, just exhausted. Now,” she suddenly turned to Sasuke and looked him over, “I want to look at you too.”

“I’m fine,” Sasuke said and glared.

Tsunade lifted an eyebrow, “you’re covered in burns and blood. You look much worse off than Naruto; I just want to make sure.”

Sasuke glared at her suspiciously.

“It would make me feel better,” she said.

Sasuke pressed his lips together and then nodded slightly, letting her lift her fingers to his temples.

Almost instantly he felt a soothing power flow into him that seemed to make him feel better than he had in weeks, and simultaneously began to drag him into darkness.

He struggled against it, but it was impossible to resist.

The last thing he heard before the darkness engulfed him completely was Tsunade’s voice.

“…Severe shock…mind and body are exhausted…let him rest…”

***

Aching.

Pounding.

Throbbing.

His brain felt like it was on fire. His head felt like it was suddenly _far_ too small.

He burned.

“Sasuke-kun?! _Sasuke-kun!_ ”

Sasuke winced as the voice pierced straight through his skull, slicing away anything that might have resembled coherent thought.

“Sasuke-kun,” a hand that felt so cold against his skin that it burned clutched his left arm, “are you all right?”

Sasuke growled, an action that he regretted immediately, and struggled to lift his arm, to _move_ it in some way and get the freezing/burning hand off of him.

Eventually he opened his eyes and then shut them again as sunlight stabbed straight through his eyeballs and into his brain.

“G’off” he mumbled; _attempted_ to mumble. It hurt his throat to talk and the incoherent moan he had managed came out sounding scratched and broken.

He needed water.

“Sasuke-kun?”

 _Damn her, would she just_ _ **shut up**_ _!_ Sasuke forced his eyes open again and focused them as much as he could on the pink smudged blur at his bedside.

“Water,” he said very precisely, managing to get it above a whisper this time.

The hand on his arm, much to Sasuke’s relief, disappeared; as did the pink blur.

He was slowly getting used to the pounding behind his temples, but that only let him become more aware of his other aches and pains. His right arm _throbbed_ , his chest stung, and almost every inch of skin along his back, shoulders and the back of his legs felt hot and tight.

“You have to sit up, Sasuke-kun,” the pink blur came back into his line of sight. He wished she would lower her voice, the sound sliced through his skull like a knife.

A hand wriggled itself between Sasuke’s shoulder blades and the bed, irritating his hot skin and sending a new blossoming of pain across his shoulders, up his neck and down his back. He grit his teeth and forced his weak limbs to get him up into a sitting position. His head spun and his vision swam.

“Here, Sasuke-kun,” something cold was pressed against his lips. Water. He drank greedily as Sakura held the glass for him, finishing it in seconds. The glass disappeared once it was empty and then Sakura put her hand on Sasuke’s arm again, attempting to push him back into laying down.

Sasuke growled.

Turning his now cleared eyes to the girl in an icy glare, Sasuke shook her hand off and asked the first and most logical question on his mind.

“Where’s Naruto?”

Sakura ignored him. “Sasuke-kun, you have to lay back down; you have to rest,” she tried to push him down onto the bed again.

Once again Sasuke shook her off, he was feeling better by the second now that he was sitting up and had had something to drink.

“ _Where_ is _Naruto_?” he asked again.

“Sasuke-ku-.”

Sasuke’s non-existent patience ran out and he grabbed Sakura’s shoulder tightly, yanking her to within an inch of himself.

“Where. Is. Naruto?” he ground out and Sakura flinched.

“S-Sasuke-kun, Y-you’re hurting me…”

Sasuke shook her, “ _wh_ _ere?!_ ”

“He’s with the Hokage!” she exclaimed, pained. “She wanted to have a private talk with him.”

Sasuke released his grip and pushed her out of his way. He swung his legs out of the bed and quickly stood and almost sank to his knees as the world abruptly began to swing out of focus.

“Sasuke-kun, what are you doing? S _asuke-kun_?!”

Sasuke ignored Sakura and staggered his way across the small hospital room, to the door.

“Sasuke-kun, _please_!  You have to rest!” Sakura put her hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, only to have it slapped away immediately. “A-and you can’t leave,” she added desperately, “the room is being guarded!”

Sasuke pulled the door open, and attempted to step out only to have a hand plant itself firmly in the centre of his chest. Slowly, waiting for his eyes to focus, Sasuke traced the line of the hand until it became an arm, then a shoulder, then a person.

An ANBU person.

“I can’t allow you to pass,” the masked figure said firmly.

“Get out of the way!” Sasuke glared.

“Please go back into your room,” the ANBU said, accompanied the words with a slight push.

“Sasuke-kun…. Please….”

Sasuke glared at the guard for a moment and then stepped backwards, slamming the door behind him. Even _he_ could tell that it would be useless to attempt to fight his way out in the condition he was in.

Turning, he pushed back passed Sakura and sagged down onto the bed. He glared at her through his fringe as she hesitantly approached.

“How long has he been gone?” he demanded.

“I...I don’t know,” Sakura stopped walking, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, “maybe an hour?”

“Hn…”

“S-Sasuke-kun….”

Sasuke rubbed slightly at his left temple. “Go away,” he said steadily, glaring at the floor. His head was beginning to throb enough that it was drowning out the rest of the screaming pain his body was in and the adrenaline that had somehow got him to the door was vanishing rapidly.

“But Sasuke-kun…”

“Go away, _now_!” he snapped,  flinching at the loudness of his own voice.

“It’s okay, Sakura-chan.”

Sasuke’s head snapped up at the tired sounding voice that came from the doorway. Naruto stood there, his hand on the handle still as he finished pushing the door open and stepped inside.

“You should go now,” the blond continued and stepped aside enough for her to get passed him.

“But…”

Naruto sighed, “we’ve got some talking to do, Sakura.”

“I-I’ll come back later,” she said uncertainly and walked slowly out of the room, staring at Sasuke until Naruto shut the door behind her. He paused for a moment and then turned the snib on the handle, locking the door.

“Are you okay?” Sasuke was the first one to speak and Naruto turned to look at him in surprise.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired,” he replied and walked over to sit on the second bed in the small room. “Are you okay? Tsunade-san said you took a lot of damage and you’ve been unconscious for two days.”

Sasuke grunted and finally lay back down in the bed, putting his left arm over his eyes, “I ache from head to foot,” he replied.

The following silence was uncomfortable, but Sasuke wasn’t sure he should break it. He wanted to ask what had happened in the Forest. The pillar of fire, how had Naruto done that? What had happened? …But he wasn’t so sure Naruto would appreciate the questions – especially since that was probably exactly what the Hokage had been asking him.

“Was it the Kyubi?” he asked finally.

“The Kyubi’s power,” Naruto replied slowly, “yes.”

Silence again.

He wondered what Naruto had spoken about with the Hokage that had made the blond so quiet.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Sasuke said finally, keeping his voice flat. He could feel Naruto’s eyes on him suddenly and he struggled not to look back.

“Yes,” Naruto said finally, “Tsunade-san just gave me a lot to think about.”

Sasuke finally gave in to his urge and lowered his arm so he could look over at Naruto. The blond was looking down at his hands as he plucked at the plain white blanket that covered his bed.

“Like what?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto pressed his lips together tightly, “Just… Just some information about the Kyubi I didn’t know before. Oh,” he looked up suddenly, “and the _Chuunin_ exam. Because of the accident it’s been postponed, and relocated.”

Sasuke sat up, “relocated? Where? Postponed until when?”

“Hidden Dark Village,” Naruto replied. “And it was postponed for two weeks. Enough time to let everyone who was coming get to the new location.”

“Two weeks,” Sasuke repeated.

“Yeah,” Naruto suddenly seemed to look less tired; his eyes sparkling slightly. “Now we can still go! I’m mostly healed already, and that old-hag-Hokage said she’d make sure you’re in perfect shape to get there. I can’t wait, I haven’t been to Hidden Dark before; I’ve heard that most of the village is underground and that they have some specialized jutsu’ for seeing in the dark and moving around in caves!”

Sasuke had heard the same things. “It’ll be…interesting,” he said, his mouth twitching up slightly into a smirk.

“Yeah, definitely!” Naruto grinned and then scrambled under his blankets. “Have to heal first, though,” he said. “I’m going to sleep; you should too.”

Sasuke nodded slightly and lay back again, listening intently until he heard the tell-tale signs of Naruto sleeping, and then, a small smile on his face, he let himself drift back into darkness.


	8. Chapter 07

## Chapter Seven

  


Hidden Dark was just like its name pronounced it to be: Dark.

The village was enclosed all around by an almost solid wall of tall mountains that shut off nearly all light and any places that might have seen a bit of sunshine was enshrouded in a thick mist.

Kakashi and his team were met at the outer circle of the mountains and it took nearly a full day for their guide to get them across the protecting mountain ring and into the Village. The entire place seemed to have a murky feel about it, as if they were moving through perpetual twilight.

Sasuke decided he didn’t like it at all.

He felt holed in, claustrophobic—as if the darkness was pressing in around him and looking at him intently, striving to find every little imperfection…to find the darkness inside him that reflected itself.

The fact that it was also impairing his vision didn’t help matters.

Naruto had been very quiet since they had first arrived, and Sakura had barely stepped a few feet away from Sasuke’s side.

Their guide led them quickly through the small, dull buildings that made up the village of Hidden Dark and soon dropped them off at a set of buildings that was set slightly away from the rest of the village.

“The exam begins tomorrow,” their guide, a small man dressed head-to-toe in dull grey, said as his eyes passed over Sakura’s bright pink hair and red dress, then Naruto’s persistently orange jumpsuit quickly, as if the bright colours offended his eyes just by existing. “You can take your rest tonight in these buildings; your _Jounin_ instructor will have to report in though.”

Kakashi nodded and, hands in pockets, stepped away form the building. “You three settle yourselves in; I’ll be back later,” he said and then he, and the guide, disappeared in two light puffs of smoke.

Sasuke frowned then turned slightly, examining his companions out of the corner of his eyes. Sakura was still so close to him she might as well have been glued there and, hands clasped tightly in front of her, she let her gaze shift quickly to everything around her – her actions revealed her nervousness.

Naruto on the other hand was completely the opposite, in fact Sasuke wasn’t even sure the blond had even realised they’d arrived. Head down and eyes pinned to the dirt at his feet, Naruto had his thumbs looped under the straps on his pack and seemed to be lost in thought.

Sasuke stepped up to the entrance of the building, deliberately nudging Naruto hard with his shoulder on the way passed.

“No time for daydreaming, _dobe,_ ” he said flatly and pushed open the door to step inside.

The inside of the building was simple and bare. The entrance door led into an open room with scant furniture consisting of a wooden table with four chairs near one wall, a utilitarian rug covering the centre of the floor and no excess decoration to speak of. The room had four doors leading from it and a quick inspection revealed them to lead to three bedrooms, each furnished with only two single beds, and a simple bathroom. Sasuke decided that he _liked_ the bathroom; it had a shower, and a _lock_.

“I don’t like this place,” Sakura had stayed in the middle of the room, standing a small distance away from Naruto, as Sasuke investigated and she was now hugging her pack to her chest, eyeing the walls distastefully. “It’s so dark and creepy.”

Sasuke’s reply to her was absent as he let his eyes move passed her to the blond who was once again seemingly lost in thought, barely registering his surroundings.

“We’re not here to like the place, we’re here to do the _Chuunin_ exam,” Sasuke dismissed the girl and slipped his pack off his back, walking towards the second door away from the main entrance. “Get some rest, Sakura. Naruto?”

“Huh?”

Sasuke stopped in the doorway and glared back at the blond.

Naruto blinked at him. “Oh…Oh, right. Good night, Sakura,” Naruto said the words absently and walked passed Sasuke into the room they would share.

Sasuke’s eyes followed the blond for a moment then he turned back to Sakura and gestured at the door farthest away from the main entrance – that would leave Kakashi the room next to the main door and would effectively set up their best defences in case of attack – and then turned and followed Naruto into the room, shutting the door behind him.

Naruto had already dumped his pack on one of the beds and was stripping off his outer clothes in preparation to sleep. Sasuke watched him silently, his eyes unreadable. Naruto had grown ever increasingly silent after what had happened in the Forest of Death and Sasuke had found his gaze pulled to the silent blond more than ever. It seemed disturbing for the boy to be so quiet, but Sasuke didn’t know quite how to approach the subject. He knew it probably had more to do with what Naruto had discussed with the Hokage than what had happened the night of the explosion – something to do with the Kyubi.

Sasuke finally stopped his silent watching and quickly divested himself of his own clothing and then settled onto the other bed. They had been travelling through the mountains all day, and had travelled cross-country to get here for the last week. He was tired, incredibly tired, though luckily, thanks to a great deal of effort on the Hokage’s part, it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed with a good night’s sleep to replenish his energy.

“Sasuke.”

Sasuke’s head snapped up slightly at the quiet, unexpected word and he looked across the room, his eyes struggling to focus in the murky half-light. Even as he looked the room become darker as what passed for the sun around here went down for the night and all he could really see was Naruto’s silhouette, a dark patch slightly darker than the rest of the room.

“What?” he finally ventured into speech when he realised that it would be nearly impossible for Naruto to see if he had Sasuke’s attention or not.

“I…” Naruto began and then, frustrating Sasuke no end, stopped. Trailing the next word off with an overly loud breath instead.

Sasuke felt his eyes narrow in annoyance but remained patient, waiting to see if Naruto would continue instead of pushing the fact like he would have done a few months ago. He didn’t like the blond’s unnatural silence, but Sasuke wasn’t about to risk driving him deeper into it by insisting he talk before he was ready.

“It’s really dark here, isn’t it?” Naruto finally said quietly.

Sasuke sighed and lay back down. “Yeah,” he agreed.

“…Sakura might have problems fighting in this kind of environment – I don’t think she ever learnt jutsu to see in the dark.”

“Hn. We can probably get through the initial group tasks,” Sasuke said closing his eyes and not really noticing a difference in the blackness that surrounded them. “She’ll be on her own after that, though.”

“Do you know any night-vision jutsu?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke heard a rustle of blankets as Naruto made himself more comfortable. “It’d be good if we could teach her one.”

“No.” Sasuke’s skills were good enough that he didn’t need to rely souly on his vision, he’d never bothered to learn a jutsu to see in the dark, he’d never seen the point. And Naruto wouldn’t know any either – he could just rely on the Kyubi’s instincts, and even its vision if he needed too. “She knew where we were coming too – if she researched the area enough she would have found a scroll or something. If not, then she’ll have to figure it out herself; we won’t be able to help her.”

“Yeah…I guess.”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly. _You guess? Since when have you ever let Sakura fend for herself?_ But how was he supposed to ask that?

“Naruto…”

“You know, we should really get some sleep now. I’m really tired from all that mountain tramping we had to do today.”

Sasuke paused. He could literally _feel_ the sudden heavy sensation in the room as Naruto waited for his reply. Sasuke sighed inaudibly and conceded the conversation, just as he had been doing every time Naruto had suddenly changed the subject on him in the last week.

“We should. We don’t know what the challenges will be tomorrow, so we should try to be at top energy.”

The tension in the air dropped a few notches and then disappeared.

“Yeah… How do you feel?” Sasuke heard the rustling of blankets again and Naruto’s voice became a little clearer. “How are your burns? And your arm?”

Yes, his injuries. Naruto may have been almost completely silent all week, but one thing he _had_ talked about, to the point of driving Sasuke a little insane, was Sasuke’s injuries. Apparently the blond couldn’t take ‘ _they’re completely healed and I feel fine_ ’ for an answer.

“They’re fine, Naruto.”

“We did a lot of climbing today, you’re sure you didn’t stretch anything to much?”

“They’re fine,” Sasuke said firmly.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

Sasuke sighed, “go to sleep, Naruto.”

“I was just…”

“ _Sleep_.”

Naruto paused and then there was a creak as he lay back on his bed again, “…goodnight, then.”

“Good _night_.”

***

They were awakened early the next morning by Kakashi and, after grabbing something quick and completely unappetising, yet healthy, to eat they filed out into the murky, nearly black, pre-dawn and followed their silver-haired Sensei to the assigned meeting place for those taking the _Chuunin_ exam.

Their journey through the village showed them that the rumours that most of the village was underground were true as Kakashi immediately led them to a set of gates leading to a flight of downward spiralling stairs. They didn’t see much of the underground portion of the village since they were probably taking some form of ‘back way’ to their destination and before long they had left the inhabited areas behind them and were led further and further downwards, following Kakashi, or more precisely the small bowl of _something_ that was giving off a faint red glow and half illuminated the stone stairs around them.

It seemed like hours before they finally felt the tell-tale auras of other people and gratefully stopped their downward climb, coming to a large cavern lit with many more of the bowls of red light.

Sasuke paused as he reached the bottom of the stairs, with Naruto and Sakura behind him, and let his eyes readjust to the brighter light. The cavern wasn’t very big, but was filled to bursting; though there certainly weren’t as many teams as there had been at Team Seven’s first _Chuunin_ exam when they were twelve.

“Come on,” Kakashi dipped the bowl he was carrying a little to get his students’ attention and then led them further into the cavern. Sasuke guessed they were the last group to arrive.

Quickly they attached themselves to the back of the crowd of waiting _Gennin_ and looked expectantly to where a group of three men were standing. They were soon joined by a fourth who whispered something to the man in the middle and then moved to the side. The centre man stood up and moved forward, standing in front of the group.

“Welcome, all of you, to Hidden Dark village,” he began, his voice carrying easily to the back of the cavern. “I’m sure you are all eager to get to the first part of this _Chuunin_ exam so I will be brief in outlining your instructions.

“Your goal is simple. Right now you are hundreds of feet below the Village of Hidden Dark of which there are countless tunnels and pathways leading to and from – however… _this_ particular section of the caves only has one correct path to make it to the surface. Your goal is to find that correct pathway and take it.

“The rules are simple. Get yourself and your team-mates out of these caves alive and within one month.” The man paused and waited for the sudden bout of noise that followed his declaration of their time limit. “Make no mistake.” He said once everyone was silent again, “It may have taken you barely an hour to reach this spot using the direct route, however that particular route is closed to you during this exam and the paths leading to the top are very winding, very misleading, and very treacherous. You could very well follow what you think, and hope, is the correct path for the course of the entire time limit, only to find in the end, that you have been following nothing but a false trail.

“Be wary, be alert, and remember that there is only one _true_ way out of these caves. I will give you the parting knowledge that the correct path to take will become apparent…if you know how to look. Good luck.”

The man stepped back again, but before any more than a murmur could be raised, a second man stepped forward and gestured for everyone’s attention.

“There will be no consulting with your instructors before this exam, please make your way to the opening at the end of the cave where you will wait for my mark. Anyone attempting to leave early _will_ be stopped and disqualified instantly. Proceed.”

Sasuke stepped back slightly as the crowd turned in their direction and then turned, seeking out his team-mates. Naruto stood behind him but Sakura was nowhere to be seen.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and looked around them a little more carefully. “Where’s Sakura?” he snapped.

Naruto jerked and glanced around himself, “she was right here…..”

Sasuke scanned the area again, his mouth pressed into a firm line, until his eyes alighted on the missing girl. She slipped out of the crowd quickly, tying the strings on her pack tightly as she moved.

“Sorry! I had to ask Kakashi-Sensei about something,” Sakura gave Sasuke an apologetic look as she moved closer, “and I wanted to do it before anyone noticed.”

Sasuke huffed and then adjusted the sit of his backpack on his back,  “ l ets just get to the cave mouth.”

“O-okay, Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke waited for Naruto to go first and then followed him, carefully keeping an eye on the other boy as they walked.

“Everyone here?!” The man from earlier stood above everyone, his eyes carefully watching where everyone was. “Good. In that case— _begin_!”

And so began Team seven’s fifth _Chuunin_ Exam.

***

“We’re lost.”

“No kidding.”

“It’s because we followed _you_ , Naruto!”

“Sakura, be quiet!”

“But Sasuke-kun…”

“I said be quiet, do you want to bring every team in the area down on our heads?”

Sakura shook her head and lowered her eyes.

“It’s impossible _not_ to be lost down here,” Sasuke continued in a calmer tone of voice. “It doesn’t matter who we followed.”

“But, if we had have gone more cautiously we could have looked to see what was marking the way!” Sakura exclaimed.

“I figured,” Naruto interjected from a few paces away where he was leaning against the cave wall with his arms crossed over his chest, “that it’d be easier to examine the caves for markings if we got away from the main group quickly. None of the rules said we couldn’t kill each other, you know – I’d far sooner make it out of this exam alive.”

“But…”

“I agree with Naruto,” Sasuke said lowly and glared at Sakura. “Which is why I followed him,” he added.

The three were silent for a few moments then Naruto finally spoke up.

“How well can you guys see? Sasuke?”

“I can see well enough with my _Sharingan_.”

Naruto looked up from where he’d been examining the floor, “really?”

“Chakra,” Sasuke answered simply, “I can see your patterns well enough, it’s almost the same as a physical body.”

“That’s pretty cool!”

“Hn.”

Naruto turned to Sakura, “Sakura?”

“I can’t see,” Sakura begin and then reached for her backpack, “but that’s why I went to see Kakashi-Sensei. The bowl he was carrying had a particular type of chemical in it that makes light when it touches air.... I wanted to get some from him.”

As she spoke, Sakura had pulled out the bowl Kakashi had originally been carrying and began emptying a small bag into it. Immediately the cave was lit by the soft red glow of light.

Naruto grinned at her, “good job!”

Sakura glanced at Sasuke hopefully and then sagged slightly as he ignored her.

“I don’t have much,” Sakura admitted and turned to Naruto, “if we get into trouble I don’t know if there will be enough for us to split it.”

Sasuke froze and watched the bright blue flame of Chakra, threaded with hints of red, which represented Naruto intently. The blond laughed and put his hands behind his head.

“Don’t worry, Sakura-chan! I won’t need it, I’ve got other ways to see,” he turned to Sasuke quickly. “So, what now, fearless leader?”

Sasuke glared at him, knowing full well that Naruto could see the expression clearly, “this is a one way passage, we’ll follow it until we get to a branching and start examining everything we can to find the correct pathway.”

Naruto ignored the ‘as if you didn’t know’ look Sasuke was directing at him and nodded, “let’s go, then!”

***

“I’m not eating that.” Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and glared away from the small fire Sasuke had started for them.

“Why not?” Naruto ripped another piece of meat off his food and began to chew, “it’s good.”

Sasuke aimed a glare across the fire at the other boy and then put a piece of his own meal into his mouth, chewing quickly.

“Naruto, it’s a _lizard_!” Sakura exclaimed, staring at both her companions in the faint light as if they’d gone insane. “ It’s not even a normal lizard, it doesn’t have _eyes_ and its scales are _grey_!”

Naruto finished his mouthful, “of _course_ it doesn’t have eyes, we’re underground, what would it need eyes for?”

“It’s not _normal_. What if it’s poisonous?”

“Then we’ll die,” Sasuke finally joined in the conversation. “We have to save the food we brought with us in case we can’t find anything closer to the surface; if all we can find down here is grey, eyeless lizards, then that’s what we’ll eat. Now hurry up; the light and the smell will spread quickly down here and I don’t want to be caught off guard.”

Sakura glared down at the fried lizard in her hand and then, bracing herself, ripped some of the meat off and put it in her mouth. She grimaced.

“It’s horrible!”

Sasuke said nothing, simply finished off the rest of his ‘meal’ and then stood up, stamping out the fire quickly and activating his _Sharingan_ again. He could see more than just the chakra of his two companions when he looked around the caves. He was finding that without the small distractions of being on the surface where the world was vibrant with life and hundreds of auras all merging into one another, that he could see a surprising amount of things that normally he wouldn’t ever have noticed.

The lizards had been just one of the small things he had seen. He was managing to find his way easily enough through his own sense’s and because even the moss that grew in the hairline cracks in the walls gave off a small, faint amount of Chakra. It was like walking through a network of hundreds of tiny silvery veins.

It was also how come he was instantly aware of the three people hovering just out of easy sensing range, crouching low against the walls. He could see their chakra as if the walls weren’t even there.

“Naruto,” he said lowly, instinctively falling into a low crouch.

The blond tilted his head to the side slightly and then imitated Sasuke’s move.

“Sakura, get down!”

“I know! I can sense them too!” she snapped quietly and slipped down towards the floor.

“Let’s see what they do,” Naruto said after a moment, and Sasuke nodded, his eyes fixed on the lights ahead. He wasn’t about to rush into a fight he didn’t need to, especially not on the first day of their trip through the underground.

“Are they doing anything?” Sakura whispered finally.

Naruto nodded slightly, “they’re talking.”

“Can you hear what they’re saying?” Sasuke asked, moving slightly closer to the blond boy.

“Mmm…just. They’re discussing what to do. I don’t think they’re going to attack, they think it’d be a bad idea to get into a fight on the first day,” he paused for a moment. “There’s a cross-path further up, it’s the way they came. They’re going to go back down and take another path.”

Sasuke nodded and relaxed slightly, “good.”

Sakura was eyeing Naruto suspiciously, “Naruto, how come you could hear them?”

Naruto  shot the girl a wide-eyed look and then  stood up  quickly and pulled his pack onto his back. “In these caves you can hear anything if you’re on the right angle,”  h e brushed the matter aside. “We can go now, they’ve moved on.”

“Let’s go,” Sasuke ordered, also pulling his pack on and waited for Naruto, and then a still suspicious Sakura, to pass him before following them out of the cavern.

***

“I don’t see anything that could be a mark,” Sakura stated and flopped down into a sitting position.

“Me either,” Naruto agreed and sat down next to her. There was a brief rustle of cloth as Sakura shuffled away from him, but if Naruto noticed he ignored it. “No matter how I look at these openings, there are no marks.”

Sasuke frowned and leaned back against a wall. “I can’t see anything with the Sharingan either,” he stated.

“Wouldn’t be something as simple as an arrow pointing in the correct direction, would it?” Naruto asked helpfully.

“Do you _see_ one?” Sasuke asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Well…no.”

“Then I guess it isn’t something that simple then.”

The group descended into silence.

“So…what do we do then, Sasuke-kun?” Sakura was the one who finally spoke.

“We should just roll a dice or something,” Naruto said, poking his pack absently.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Naruto!” Sakura snapped at him.

Sasuke caught the wince before Naruto could hide it and he glared daggers at the girl through the darkness. “We might as well,” he stated. “We’re not going to figure out which way to go by just sitting here.”

Naruto smiled at Sasuke faintly, “I didn’t bring a dice.”

“Hn.” Sasuke swung his pack up onto his back again, picked a cave mouth at random and began walking down it. “Let’s go.”

***

They spent three days wandering aimlessly, heading in as much of an _upward_ direction as they could manage, before they encountered anyone or anything else of interest. They had camped for a while after a quick meal of eyeless lizard and some cave mushrooms that Sakura had managed to identify as safely edible and Naruto was on watch while the other two slept.

Or, at least, while Sakura slept. Sasuke had awoken after an hour or so and was now laying in the darkness, watching Naruto with his _Sharingan_. The boy’s chakra was low, muted as Naruto kept it dampened to stay hidden, but it was still flecked with the strands of bright red that marked his use of the Kyubi’s power.

Sasuke watched the flicks of red as they weaved through Naruto’s aura intently; it was the closest he could get in the darkness to watching the others face to see his moods. The chakra moved slowly; Naruto was thinking – rather, he was brooding. Still.

It was frustrating…. Sasuke _wanted_ to help. _Wanted_ to figure out _what_ he needed to say to make Naruto open up to him so whatever was making him so…so… _un-Naruto_ could be solved. He wanted to protect him from it – but he couldn’t if he didn’t know what it was.

“Go back to sleep, Sasuke.”

Naruto’s chakra moved slightly and Sasuke knew the other boy had turned to look at him. He sat up, pushing his thin blanket off of him as he did so.

“I’ve already slept, I don’t need more,” he stated.

“ _Keh_! Don’t give me that; you’re a growing boy, you need energy.”

“And you don’t?” Sasuke asked with amusement and stood up, packing his blanket away.

“Huh? Oh, well…yeah. I guess so…. But I slept last time we stopped.”

“About as much as I just did,” Sasuke replied and plopped himself down next to Naruto.

“…You should still sleep a little longer,” Naruto said after a moment, and Sasuke shrugged, not bothering to answer.

The silence stretched for a while and it was Naruto who finally broke it, shifting uncomfortably and turning slightly in Sasuke’s direction.

“Does it seem like anything…odd is going on to you?”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, “odd?”

“Yeah. Like…I dunno…funny scents, or flashes of light?”

“No. Not really. Why? Do you think we might be under attack?”

“I’m not sure…” Naruto shifted uncomfortably again. “It might just be me – I’m not used to using the Kyubi’s senses constantly like this, and it’s not like I’ve ever been into caves this deep before – who knows what I’m supposed to be smelling.”

“It might be better to stay alert though…just in case,” Sasuke said cautiously.

And then Naruto was on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

Sasuke took a gasp of breath, the short fall having knocked the air out of him, and his ears focused on the sound of a metal object hitting stone and clattering to the ground. His eyes flashed red with the _Sharingan_ and his hands went for his weapons even as he rolled to his feet to stand near Naruto.

The world around him lit up, the brightest point being where the warmth from the fire they had used for their meal still made the air shimmer with its heat. He stared around them carefully, his eyes wide as he examined their surroundings.

There was another faint sound in the air and Sasuke moved left, pushing Naruto out of the way of the kunai flying at them, and received a light elbow on the ribs.

“I can take care of myself, bastard!” Naruto whispered, pulling away from Sasuke’s grasp, and then ran to the left, “wake Sakura up!”

Sasuke glared after Naruto’s retreating chakra and then moved closer to their old fire, kneeling by Sakura’s side and shaking her roughly.

“Huh?” the girl said and Sasuke slapped a hand over her mouth.

“Shhh…Attack.”

Sakura went still and nodded slightly to indicate she’d heard him.

“Get our things,” Sasuke said lowly, bringing his head down close to her so his voice would be harder to hear by others. “Naruto and I are going to try and draw them away. Stay alert.”

Sakura nodded quickly.

Sasuke stood and then dodged into the darkness, following the path Naruto had taken and headed towards where he could faintly hear, and dimly see, fighting. He counted three clusters of chakra, one of them Naruto’s. That left one other person concealed somewhere.

Sasuke kept himself hidden and focused more power into his _Sharingan_ , willing it to see through physical walls and illusionary ones alike. He spotted the third enemy in seconds, hanging from the ceiling above the fight, hidden by a _genjutsu_.

The man moved along the ceiling, tracking Naruto’s movement as he fought. Sasuke barely registered what he was doing, simply attacked; moving like a silent shadow through the caves, over the short distance to the fight, and up onto the ceiling. He struck with his kunai and the _genjutsu_ shattered.

There was a scream as the man had his energy forcefully fed back to him as his jutsu shattered and he dropped from the ceiling, landing heavily on the ground with Sasuke right behind him. As he fell, Sasuke reversed his grip on his Kunai and, landing easily, he grabbed his opponent quickly by the hair and jerked him backwards, holding the point of the kunai to his throat. Then he looked over at Naruto.

Naruto’s fight was awkward. The blond seemed as if he were fighting with himself every time he moved and the result left him slightly off-balance. Sasuke was on the verge of knocking out the man he had at knife point and leaping to Naruto’s aid when the blond finally seemed to figure out what he was doing and sent both of the men he was fighting flying across the cavern with a well-aimed kick.

The two hit the wall with a resounding crash and slumped to the floor, unconscious. Sasuke crouched a little lower and pulled his captive’s hair slightly, a warning for him not to move. Naruto joined them a moment later.

“You all right, Sasuke?” Naruto asked, his eyes flicking over him quickly.

Sasuke tightened his grip on the man he held as he flinched and then grunted affirmative and glared. “What the hell were you doing?” he demanded.

Naruto flinched slightly. “Fighting,” he stated and then added as an afterthought, as if he had suddenly remembered he was supposed to say it, “bastard.”

“Naruto!” Sasuke said warningly, “you were flailing around like a five-year-old and _what the hell is your problem?!”_ Sasuke demanded abruptly, turning his attention to the man that was suddenly struggling fiercely in his grip. “Would you just stay still!”

A moment later Naruto helped to keep the man immobile and they both stared at him expectantly.

“Y-you…you’re…” The man babbled out and then took a shaky breath, “you’re Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. W-we heard about you before the exam.”

“Huh?” Naruto asked intelligently.

“My team’s _Sensei_ was in the same _Chuunin_ exam as you both three years ago.”

Sasuke suddenly sighed and Naruto took on the look of one who has been grossly offended.

“ _That_ was a complete misunderstanding!” Naruto exclaimed and stood up, pointing his finger at the trembling man on the ground. “It was _totally_ not our fault!”

Three years ago, their third _Chuunin_ exam. It _had_ been a complete misunderstanding, but it had been a misunderstanding that had led to Naruto and Sasuke being dragged into an unauthorized fight that had taken out almost an entire district of their hosting village’s shopping area and ended with team seven being ousted from the exam and sent home early.

Sasuke smirked lightly as he watched Naruto ranting, more himself than he’d been in weeks, at the poor man on the ground. Obviously Naruto was still sore over the entire situation.

“…And there were _three other people_ in that exam that had pink hair; it could have been _any_ of them! We were framed! Do I look like the kind of person who would poison someone’s ramen?! I _love_ r amen! If I ever find out who _did_ do it, I _will kick their arses_! Do you understand me?!” Naruto had pulled the shaking  man up by the front of his shirt until they were face to face. “ _Well_?!”

“Naruto,” Sasuke finally interjected. “You’re scaring him.”

“So?! _I do not poison_ _r_ _amen!_ ”

“I think he’s convinced,” Sasuke said dryly. “Let him go.”

“ _Keh_!” Naruto dumped the  man on the floor and stomped a few feet away, grumbling to himself with every step. Sasuke turned to the released man, grabbing him by the back of the shirt before he could get away.

“Just a couple of questions,” Sasuke said. “Why did you attack us?”

“W-we thought you might know the way through the caves.”

“Hn. So you don’t know how to get through?”

“N-no.”

Sasuke suddenly released him. “You can go; don’t follow us, or I’ll tell Naruto you don’t believe him.” The man went white and Sasuke smirked and then stood up. “Naruto! Let’s go.”

“Shut up, Bastard! Don’t give me orders!”

“Fine,” Sasuke retorted exiting through a cave mouth, heading back towards where they had been camped. “Stay here then.”

A few seconds later he heard Naruto’s heavy footsteps coming up behind him and he slowed slightly, waiting for the boy to catch up. Naruto was still grumbling.

“If you make any more noise you’ll pull every person in the area down on our heads,” Sasuke observed.

Naruto growled low in his throat but stopped stomping his feet so much and cut off his angry monologue. Sasuke looked the other way to hide a smile – this was the Naruto he knew, loud, obnoxious and righteously indignant over the smallest of slights.

“Are you injured?” Sasuke asked finally and felt Naruto half glare at him.

“No,” was his short reply.

Sasuke allowed them to take a few more steps forward before he spoke again, “what happened during that fight?”

Naruto looked away, “nothing.”

“I haven’t seen you fight that badly since our first training session with Kakashi,” Sasuke said. “Wh-.”

“It’s nothing!” Naruto suddenly snapped and began to walk faster, “just leave it alone; we have to find Sakura.”

Sasuke watched, startled, as Naruto’s chakra moved further away, muting slightly as the blond dampened it again to stop anyone nearby from seeing it.

_Damn it_!

***

Things were tense between Team Seven after that.

They made their way silently through the caves, travelling ever upwards as much as they could, exchanging speech only when it was completely necessary. Sakura did her best to stay near Sasuke, persevering in her attempt to get his attention even as he completely ignored her. Sasuke became Naruto’s shadow. The blond wasn’t talking to him, though he wasn’t quite ignoring him either, so Sasuke simply stayed a few steps behind him at all times, watching him closely. Naruto, for his part, stayed quiet, keeping company with his own thoughts instead of his companions.

It stayed like that for days, or at least for what felt like days. Sasuke was sure it had been at least six of them by the time anyone said anything that wasn’t absolutely required. Surprisingly it was Naruto who suddenly stopped them in the middle of a cave, sniffing the air slightly and tilting his head to one side as he listened, before taking off his pack and dumping it on the ground.

“This won’t work,” he said into the silence as Sasuke and Sakura stopped.

“What won’t work?” Sakura asked tiredly and sat down, resting against her pack.

“This. _This,_ ” he said, waving an arm around himself wildly, “this aimless wandering.”

“Well, if you know the way out by all means, tell us,” Sasuke said curtly and leaned against the wall.

Naruto turned and glared at him, “ you know I don’t! ”

“Then what’s the point of complaining about it? We haven’t found anything that looks like a path, or even hints at a path, all we can do is wander.”

Naruto huffed, “aren’t you supposed to be some sort of great tracker? And Sakura, you’re the best at jutsu and chakra, if there’s anything at all  _you_ should have seen it!”

“Thanks, Naruto. Your confidence in my skills touches me,” Sakura snapped at him.

“Well, maybe you _would_ have found something if you’d been studying instead of tagging around after Sasuke  all the time!” Naruto snapped back.

Sakura breathed in sharply, her eyes going wide as she stared at the blond member of their team.

“Naruto-” Sasuke began, but was interrupted by Sakura.

The girls eyes had narrowed and now she was leaning forward, glaring at Naruto fiercely. “What is  _wrong_ with you?” she demanded, “you’ve been strange ever since we got here and  _this_ isn’t like you!”

Naruto’s eyes widened slightly, and then they narrowed in anger, “what the hell do you know about what I’m like? You spend so much time running after  _Sasuke_ I doubt you know what  _anyone_ else is like!”

This, Sasuke reflected, was not what they needed right now. Deep in these caves, with potential enemies around every corner, lost and in the dark, was  _not_ the greatest time for Naruto to suddenly grow a backbone about Sakura.

Sakura was now standing, “I know that you’re not like _this_! I know that you don’t yell and grump and be so _mean_ to people for no reason. I know that, whatever else, you’re my _friend_ and my friend doesn’t treat people like this.”

Out of the corner of his eye there was suddenly a flash of colour and Sasuke turned his head slightly, examining the rock around him as best he could. The path they had travelled was long and straight. The red glow of Sakura’s bowl of light ended after a few feet leaving the rest of the cave in darkness and Sasuke couldn’t see anything, even with his _s_ _haringan_. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his attention back to Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto had a hurt look on his face, but it was rapidly changing back to one of anger.

“Can we just hurry up and start moving?” Sasuke inserted into the argument and was suddenly on the receiving end of two furious glares.

“Fine,” Naruto spat the word out angrily and, scooping his backpack up off the ground, turned his back on them and headed further into the darkness.

“Sasuke-kun...” Sakura had picked up her backpack and looked near tears, “why…?”

Sasuke shook his head and pushed himself away from the wall to follow Naruto. He had no bloody idea.

  


***

Team Seven, Sasuke decided, was falling apart.

Sakura and Naruto now spent most of their time snapping at each other and getting into pointless arguments. Sasuke had stopped trying to make them shut up after only a day. Any time he bothered to say anything, they would both turn on him and, while Sakura managed to restrain herself, Naruto had no problem letting loose on him and then stomping off ahead, leaving him with Sakura. Which, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to increase Naruto’s anger at him ten-fold. So Sasuke had learnt quickly to simply keep his mouth shut and hope they weren’t noticed by anyone.

By Sasuke’s reckoning Team Seven had been in the caves under Hidden Dark village for eleven days and they were now standing on the edge of a natural underground cliff trying to figure out which way they should go.

Rather they _had_ been attempting to figure out which way they should go. Now Naruto and Sakura were deeply into another of their pointless arguments and Sasuke had dropped his pack beside him and leaned against the wall to wait. The area they were in was small, mostly taken up by the gaping hole in the floor, and the wall that Sasuke leaned on was dotted with five different openings, one of which they had entered through. Before the other two had begun arguing they had managed to rule out three of the cave mouths as their next path choice, but that had still left two. Both of them headed upwards and both of them went in roughly the same direction.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back at where his team-mates were fighting, Sakura complete with waving arms as she attempted to get Naruto to listen to her. The situation was becoming untenable. He could handle the arguing, since Naruto and Sakura had always argued with each other; what he couldn’t handle was the _way_ they were arguing. Six months ago, Naruto never would have used the tone of voice he was using now, and six months ago Sakura never would have spent so much time genuinely trying to antagonise the blond boy.

Sasuke knew Naruto had things on his mind, and there was also the great possibility that he had finally gotten over his crush on the girl, but the genuine attempts to hurt that he was displaying were completely out of character for him. Sakura was doing the best that she could, holding her own in the arguments and even striking a few verbal blows of her own, but it couldn’t continue like this. Something was going to break.

The argument finally seemed to be reaching its natural conclusion when Naruto suddenly went completely still, and then moved forward, pushing Sakura to the floor.

“Wha-!?” Sakura glared up at Naruto angrily but the blond boy stayed stock-still.

Sasuke pushed himself away from the wall, his eyes wide. There was a slim needle sticking out of Naruto’s neck and, even as Sasuke watched, he began to waver on his feet then, slowly, his eyes slid shut and he began to fall backwards….

...off the side of the cliff.

Sasuke’s muscles remained locked for a moment in shock as Naruto fell, then, just as the boy disappeared from sight, he suddenly sprang back to life.

“ _Naruto!_ ” he barely registered the yell as his own. Using the wall to get more speed, Sasuke sprinted the short distance to the edge of the cliff and, not even blinking, followed Naruto over.


	9. Chapter 08

## Chapter Eight

  


Sakura scrambled to her knees and stared over the cliff edge in shock. Sasuke and Naruto had already disappeared from sight and all she could see was blackness below her. It was impossible. Sasuke had just….  He had just moved, without even thinking about it. She hadn’t even had time to realise what was happening, had barely seen the needle protruding from Naruto’s neck before it was to late.

She couldn’t see them; could barely see anything beyond the scope of her circle of red light. She took a breath; steadied herself. They had fallen, but they weren’t dead. Team seven had been through to much, seen to much, to succumb to something like this. They weren’t dead, but they might be hurt and they were going to need her, need her healing skills. She had to find a way down.

The sound of a boot scraping against stone and then a light laugh behind her pulled Sakura’s attention away from the cliff’s edge. Carefully she spun on her knees, getting one foot under her, and, with a kunai instantly clutched in one steady hand, looked around the red-lit cave. She didn’t have to look hard. Three men, all dressed head-to-toe in dark grey, exited one of the caves she, Sasuke and Naruto had managed to rule out and arranged themselves in a semi-circle around her.

“That’s a nice bit of light you have here,” one of them said and Sakura turned her head slightly to see him better. His face was covered except for his eyes, though all she could see of them were dark holes as the fabric covering his face created shadows where his eyes should have been. Sakura let her eyes move to the bandanna that was tied around the man’s forehead. They were from hidden Grass. “I think we’ll be taking it, and whatever you used to make it,” the man continued.

Sakura remained quiet. What could she do? She had to find Sasuke and Naruto, she couldn’t waste time messing around with idiots. But she couldn’t just jump off the cliff, and she couldn’t start climbing down either, not while these three men were threatening her.

Climbing was her only option, she decided, but to do that she needed her light, and that meant she couldn’t give it away as a peace offering.

“I don’t think you heard me, little girl. Hand over the things you used to make your light, and we’ll let you live. Then at least you’ll be able to tell your village how your team-mates died.”

Sakura’s eyebrow twitched and she shifted slightly, getting her other foot under her. “They’re not dead,” she stated.

The man before her started slightly and then gestured. The man on Sakura’s far right edged closer to the cliff edge and peered over it; his smirk reappeared in seconds.

“She’s bluffing, there’s no one there.”

“Nice try, little girl.”

Sakura tensed her muscles. “I said they weren’t dead, not that they were hanging to the side of the cliff.” she rejoined and then moved. Diving forward she looped the hand with her kunai in it thorough the strap of her pack and swung it into place, grabbed the bowl of red light with the other and then ran through the gap that had been left when the man on her right had moved closer to the cliff edge. As she passed she gave the man near the cliff a hard kick and then she was gone, disappearing down the tunnel at the end of the room that Team Seven had originally ruled out because it led downwards.

Behind her Sakura heard the sounds of swearing as the men struggled to keep their third team-member from falling off the cliff, but she ignored it to concentrate on running as quickly as she could. Four times she came to places where there were crossroads and each time she took the cave mouth that led either down, or parallel to the cliff edge. It was over an hour before she finally slowed down, then finally stopped.

Dropping into a crouching position, Sakura hugged the bowl close to her stomach to mute the light and then looked around her. She had stopped because the cave she had come too was missing half the floor and dropped off into darkness, just like the one where Sasuke and Naruto had fallen.

After regaining her breath, Sakura crawled over to the edge of the cliff and looked down seeing nothing but darkness. It looked like she could climb though, if she were careful.

Sitting back again, Sakura put the wooden bowl on the floor then struggled to get her pack off and then began to rummage around in it quickly. It took a moment, but she finally found what she was looking for and pulled it out, holding it up to the light. What she held was a half full jar of herbal cream. She paused and then pulled a small, square piece of fabric out of her pack and spread it on the ground and then unscrewed the lid on the jar and scooped out what was in it and plopped it into the centre of the fabric. Working quickly, she got as much of the cream out of the jar as she could and then, using the corner of her red dress, cleaned out the inside of the jar and put it down next to the wooden bowl; then she turned back to the square cloth, carefully wrapped it and put it back into her pack.

Once that was done she turned back to the wooden bowl and jar then poured the contents of the bowl into the jar until the hand that held up was glowing a fierce red colour. She put the jar down carefully and then the bowl and then pulled a kunai out of her pouch and pulled the jar’s lid over to her and punctured three very precise holes into it. After that she put the kunai away and pulled out a knot of string and threaded it through the holes, tied the string firmly, then screwed the lid back onto the jar tightly and pulled it over her head.

She looked down at the glowing jar that hung around her neck for a moment and then shoved the wooden bowl into her pack, pulled the pack onto her back and then crawled back over to the cliff.

It was now or never. Carefully she turned herself around and began to make her way down the cliff-face.

***

How, and this was an important question,  _how_ did Naruto always get him into these kinds of situations?

Sasuke was currently wedged in between two ledges of rock, with a cliff face on his left and terrifyingly open air on his right. The only thing keeping him from falling to his death was the fact that he was using his feet and back to keep himself wedged where he was with copious amounts of Chakra.

And the fact that Naruto was sprawled, face first and completely unconscious, across his lap making him just that little bit more heavier wasn’t helping. At least he hadn’t been wearing his pack when he fell, both he and Sasuke would probably have been very much _dead_ at this moment if he had have been.

Tensing his legs slightly to keep them in place, Sasuke moved his hands away from the wall and pulled Naruto more securely into his lap, grabbed the blond’s wrist and checked his pulse. It took a moment for Sasuke to find it, but when he did he was relieved to find it was strong. Going by touch, Sasuke moved his hands to Naruto’s neck and felt around for the needle, carefully pulling it out when he found it and bringing it up to examine. He felt further relief when a quick smell test, and then a careful taste test of the clear liquid that coated the needle revealed it to be a common sleeping potion; Naruto would wake up soon.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had to keep them from falling to their deaths and at the same time, get them _down_. Flicking the needle away from him, Sasuke put his arms around Naruto to make certain he wouldn’t fall and then slowly began to edge his way downwards, concentrating hard on keeping his Chakra flow even and on not slipping.

He was dripping with sweat and sporting numerous stinging, bleeding cuts by the time a twitch from Naruto’s direction revealed the blond was waking up. Sasuke stopped moving, fixing himself in position again, and turned his attention to Naruto. His eyelashes fluttered slightly then slowly opened. Sasuke glared at him and shook his shoulder.

“Ugh…” Naruto twitched slightly and opened his eyes properly. “Holy fuck!”

Sasuke kept a hold of Naruto as his entire body twitched violently and he stared downward, now completely awake. “Don’t. Move,” Sasuke said and tightened his grip on Naruto.

“S-Sasuke, we’re hanging off a _cliff_!”

“Really, Naruto? I hadn’t noticed.” 

“What happened?!” the blond demanded. “And why can’t I move?!”

Sasuke loosened his grip slightly, “because you’ll fall, _baka_!”

“No, really, Sasuke. I can’t move,” Naruto’s voice had the sound of deep concentration in it and he was now staring fixedly at one of his hands, which were hanging down passed his head.

“Oh. A side effect of what knocked you out. It’ll wear off,” Sasuke said calmly and shifted his position slightly as he felt his back slip downwards slightly. “You fell off the cliff,” Sasuke added in answer to Naruto’s first question.

“I-I fell off the cliff?” Naruto repeated. “Then how come _you’re_ here?”

Sasuke’s back slipped again, “could we discuss this later? Preferably when we’re on solid ground and not suspended half-way up a cliff face?”

Naruto twitched again, slightly, “you jumped after me, didn’t you?”

Sasuke sighed and resumed his cautious inching down the cliff, “yes.”

“Idiot! You could have died!”

“You _would_ have died,” Sasuke returned calmly.

“That’s not a good reason to go jumping off _cliffs_!”

Sasuke remained silent for a moment. “I can’t think of a better one,” he finally said quietly.

“ _Idiot_!” Naruto said again, closing his eyes, “ you’re really…really an idiot.”

Sasuke didn’t bother replying, simply carried on his careful downwards climb.

Eventually Naruto opened his eyes again and twisted his head a bit in the direction of Sasuke face. “I can move a bit now,” he stated.

“That’s nice,” Sasuke paused his downward climb again to catch his breath, “don’t.”

“ _Chi_ ’. I’m not that stupid,” Naruto said then suddenly added, “wait, if we’re here, where’s Sakura?”

Sasuke blinked, “probably still up top.”

“Weren’t we being attacked?”

“…She’ll be fine,” Sasuke said after a moment.

Naruto frowned.

“She’ll think of something,” Sasuke said, and began to move downwards again. The two bits of rock he was bracing himself against were slowly beginning to get closer to each other and he hoped they might find a ledge or something soon.

“Hey, Sasuke?”

“What?” Sasuke felt a sharp sting in his left hand as he slipped slightly on the rock and cut himself.

“Do you smell something…odd?”

“Odd? Like what?”

“Like…” Naruto paused then said it anyway, “like meat-buns. Pork, I think.”

Sasuke paused in his climbing and sniffed carefully. “…no.”

Naruto closed his eyes and sniffed again, “are you sure?”

“Positive,” Sasuke confirmed.

“That can’t be right,” Naruto muttered. “I can damn well smell them. Just like yesterday; I could have sworn I could smell Ramen, but there was no one but us around.”

“Ramen?” Sasuke questioned. “You’re enhancing your sense of smell with the Kyubi’s power, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but…” Naruto glared downwards into the darkness below them. “Even if someone down here _does_ or _did_ have ramen, I shouldn’t be able to smell it unless they’re relatively close. The same now, I can _smell pork-buns_!”

Sasuke frowned in thought and tried to ignore how much of a dead weight Naruto was becoming, “fresh, or old?”

“Fresh! As if they were right in front of me.”

“When we were attacked that first time,” Sasuke said slowly, “you asked me if I was seeing odd flashes of light.”

“Yes; and?”

“The more I used my Sharingan over the last week the more I’ve been seeing odd lights and flashes of colour out of the corner of my eyes.”

Naruto turned his head to peer at Sasuke again, “a _genjutsu_?” he asked.

“‘ _The correct path to take will become apparent…if you know how to look._ ’” Sasuke quoted and frowned.

“Are you saying,” Naruto said incredulously, “that these caves are nothing but a giant illusion?”

“What does your nose tell you?” Sasuke said.

Naruto growled, “that someone is having pork-buns for lunch.”

“The flashes of light I’ve been seeing is probably my Sharingan trying to see through the illusion,” Sasuke stated.

Naruto suddenly cocked his head to the side, closing his eyes. “There’s someone nearby,” he said, “climbing.”

Sasuke looked up, scanning around them his Sharingan, “how close?”

“Well…” Naruto’s expression took on a look of concentration, “okay, not that close. But I can hear it,” he pointed left, “that way.”

Sasuke opened his eyes wide and put some extra Chakra into his Sharingan, glaring through the rock that surrounded him. “I can see…” he said, slowly and then blinked. “Sakura,” he said in surprise.

“Perfect timing!” Naruto exclaimed and pointed to the left again, “climb that way!”

Sasuke glared at Naruto in exasperation, “how, exactly? We’re wedged into this bit of rock until we fall or find a ledge, and you’re not exactly light you know.”

“Errr… Okay, down is fine for now.”

“ _Baka,_ ” Sasuke said irritably and began to carry them downward again. “Keep an eye out for ledges,” he added after a moment. “If they don’t have anything living on them I won’t see them.”

Naruto nodded and Sasuke continued to climb.

They found a ledge by accident. They had continued their downward course for another forty minutes or so and hadn’t spotted a single place they could stop to rest that would accommodate both, or even just  _one_ , of them and Sasuke’s limbs were beginning to shake with the strain of supporting both his own and Naruto’s weight.

Naruto had suggested they find a way for Naruto get _off_ of him a couple of times, but Sasuke had simply shaken his head; he was fairly sure that any kind of extreme movement would dislodge them from their precarious perch and he hadn’t thrown himself off of a cliff and then spent over an hour carefully inching down it, only to slip to his death trying to get more comfortable.

In the end though, they _had_ slipped.

Rather, Naruto did. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Naruto had taken a hold of the rock beside them and attempted to get into a position where he could climb. The sudden change in weight had knocked Sasuke slightly off-balance, but he’d managed to catch himself. Naruto hadn’t counted on his limbs still not working properly after the sleeping draught though and he had slipped. Sasuke had immediately lunged away from the rock to catch him and they had crashed downwards instantly, earning Sasuke a cut down the length of his left arm and leg and Naruto a cut knee when their plunging decent had abruptly stopped as they hit the ledge.

Sasuke had managed to go a full three seconds before he’d sat up and, hands checking every part of Naruto he could reach for injuries, given the other boy a lecture he had agreed with wholeheartedly.

It took a few more minutes to convince Sasuke he was hardly hurt at all, and then more as Naruto ripped a sleeve off of his jacket and did his best to clean Sasuke up and bandage him; all his medical things had been in his backpack, which was still at the top of the cliff.

Naruto had just tied off the last strip of orange over one of the worst cuts when he heard the scrape of fabric against rock. He cocked his head to one side, listening intently, and then poked Sasuke to get his attention.

“ _Oi_ , smack me if I’m wrong, but there should be a patch of red light glowing somewhere behind me.”

Sasuke’s eyes immediately moved to focus behind Naruto and he blinked.

“Sakura?” he said, loudly.

There was a pause, “Sasuke-kun?!”

“Come left, Sakura!” Naruto exclaimed and turned around, “we’re on a ledge.”

“N-Naruto? You’re okay?”

“We’re both fine, Sakura,” Sasuke answered her.

“I-I’ll be over in a moment,” Sakura called back.

Sasuke and Naruto sat back against the wall, as far from the edge as they could get, as they listened to the sound of Sakura making her way towards them and watched the gentle bobbing of the red light that hung around her neck. As she drew closer, Sasuke could see that she was covered in scrapes and cuts and that her dress was torn in a couple of places.

“Are you badly injured?” Sasuke asked once she’d finally managed to get to the ledge and collapsed, breathing heavily.

“N-No, Sasuke-kun. Just scrapes. How about you two? Are you hurt?”

“Scrapes and cuts, nothing serious.”

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief.

“How did you get away from the attack?” Naruto asked.

Sakura looked up at him quickly then looked down again. “I-I ran. They wanted the bowl of light, it’s why they attacked. I pushed one of them close to the edge to distract them, then found a place where I could climb down.”

Naruto grinned at her, “way to go!”

Sakura glanced back up at the boy, her face showing her surprise; Naruto hadn’t been that civil to her in days.

Sasuke adjusted his position slightly, wincing as his cut arm brushed again Naruto’s and sent a wave of pain through him. He ignored it, “now we just need to get out of here.”

“How?” Sakura questioned, “I still can’t see the bottom, do we climb up, or down?”

“Neither,” Sasuke said.

“N-neither?”

“We talked about it while we were climbing,” Naruto said, “we think these caves are just a _genjutsu_.”

“A _genjutsu_?” Sakura repeated. “Why do you think that?”

“My Sharingan is seeing through it a little,” Sasuke answered as Naruto looked away, “and Naruto has noticed some odd things as well.”

“Odd things?”

“Smells, mainly,” Naruto said, still looking away. “Sometimes flashes of light. Things I don’t think should be down here, I guess.”

“I think it’s the answer to the clue we were given when we started,” Sasuke continued, “these caves are a _genjutsu_ and the way out is to realise that it is.”

Sakura nodded slightly, and then slumped, “I should have known. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sasuke gave her, and then Naruto, hard looks, “not entirely. None of us have been at our best during this.”

Sakura avoided Sasuke’s gaze, “if you both figured it out, then why are you still here? You could have dispelled it, already.”

Naruto finally looked up, a grin lighting up his expression. “This is a group task,” he said gently.

“Now we’re together,” Sasuke said and sat up a little straighter, “we should try dispelling the _genjutsu_.”

“Okay,” Sakura agreed and, aiming another searching look at Naruto, changed her position so she was facing the two boys.

The three of them looked at each other and then closed their eyes, forming the correct seals as they did so. A second later they completed the dispel, their voices turning into one as they completed it.

“ _Kai!_ ”

Sasuke felt a sudden rush of vertigo and then everything stopped. He opened his eyes to find himself staring at the back of a pair of black clad knees.

Sasuke blinked to try and focus properly and looked upwards as the figure in front of him moved, turning to face Sasuke and then walking passed him to step out of the circle Team Seven had made; it was then that Sasuke realised that they were no longer on the ledge hanging off the side of a cliff. He looked around quickly and saw that they were now in the first cavern they had seen before the Exam started, as was everyone else who had entered the _Chuunin_ exam. Each team sat in a circle with a man, or woman, dressed in flowing black clothing sitting in the middle of them. There were also another three of the Black clad people with each group, one sitting behind each member of the group, lightly touching their temples.

“Ne, Sasuke? You with us?” Sasuke turned back to his own group and looked over at Naruto.

“Yes,” he replied and then turned quickly as he felt a familiar presence behind him.

“Yo!” Kakashi said when he got close enough and raised his hand in greeting. “Congratulations, kids. You’ve passed the first part of Hidden Dark’s _Chuunin_ Exam.”

***

It was later, much later, and Team seven had retired back to the  guest-house they were staying in to interrogate Kakashi as much as the man would allow himself to be interrogated.

“So…all those black clad people were from Hidden Dark’s Genkaku Clan?” Sakura asked slowly.

“Aaa,” Kakashi confirmed.

“I don’t understand how they pulled off such a large genjutsu on us though,” Sakura said. “Or how they stopped Sasuke-kun from seeing through it.”

“It wasn’t a _genjuts_ _u_ ,” Naruto stated and then added as a sudden afterthought, “right? Kakashi…err…Sensei.”

Kakashi flicked his eyes in Naruto’s direction for a moment and then went back to looking lazy. “Right, and wrong. It was a genjutsu but it was also the Genkaku clan’s Blood Limit Ability. By going into the subjects mind they can create an illusion that even the _Sharingan_ has trouble seeing through; it took you a while to notice anything odd, didn’t it, Sasuke?”

Sasuke made a noise of agreement and sat back further in his chair, he was only half listening to Kakashi’s explanation and, while he did find the Genkaku clan’s ability interesting, he was more interested in surreptitiously watching Naruto.

“But still…to do something on such a large scale,” Sakura said wonderingly.

Kakashi sighed and leaned forward in his seat, accepting the fact that he’d have to make a full explanation before any of the kids would leave him alone. “Their ability isn’t so much the creation of the illusionary world inside your minds, more the fact that through others with the same ability they can link those illusions together to create a larger illusion. You each had one member of the Genkaku clan creating an illusion in your mind and controlling it, then there was a fourth member who took the pieces of your individual illusions, wove them together and connected them to the other groups that were in the caves with you. Do you understand?”

“Wow,” Sakura responded. Naruto emitted a similar sound.

“Well, good. Now that you understand, I’m going to bed. You three should as well,” Kakashi added, getting to his feet. “You have just over two weeks before the rest of this exam finishes and it’ll be time for the preliminary fights to knock the numbers down. You’ll want to start training.”

***

Training grounds were provided for them, though they certainly weren’t areas that Sasuke would have picked to train in. The area team seven was given for their training was underground and consisted of a cavern so covered in stalagmites and stalactites that they _almost_ managed to seem like a forest, if you squinted.

The training area was private, however, and team seven could be certain they could train without being spied on. Four days after getting out of the illusionary caves they had settled into a comfortable training regime with Sakura training hard with Kakashi in one section of their training area, while Sasuke and Naruto worked on decimating the scenery in another section as they resumed their training with the Kyubi’s power.

Naruto’s fighting had slowly improved from the mishmash state it had been in while they were in the caves and in some ways had surprised Sasuke by being even better than he had been beforehand. As they battled their way across their training area it was all Sasuke could do to keep up with Naruto and his newly developing fighting style, though he was doing his best not to admit it.

It was when he realised that Naruto had noticed he was struggling and began to tone things down that he suddenly called a stop to their training and, breath coming in short gasps, suggested they stop for the day.

“Sure,” Naruto agreed quickly as he caught his breath. “I’m starved, we should go get some ramen on the way back.”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched at the mention of ramen but he gave in quickly and, letting Naruto go ahead of him, went and told Kakashi they had finished training for the day. Sakura was doing some sort of meditation while Kakashi had his nose buried in his book when Sasuke came over and he was sure Kakashi wasn’t even listening when he told the older man what he and Naruto were doing. Sasuke stared at Kakashi for a moment after the man gave him a distracted ‘mmhmm’ as a response and then turned on his heel and left the training grounds quickly.

It took him only a few minutes to get to the ramen stand Naruto had suggested and it didn’t take him long to find Naruto amongst the surprisingly large group that was gathered there; he was the one pressed hard up against the wall by an over muscled man who looked like he was ready to tear the short blond apart with just his teeth.

Sasuke reacted without even thinking. Instantly he was threading his way through the group, elbowing people out of the way where needed, till he reached where Naruto was. He didn’t pause. As soon as he was close enough he lashed out with his foot, kicking the large man in the back of the knee, and then he slammed his fist into the man’s face, sending him flying backwards to knock over the pair of leering, similarly over muscled men standing behind him.

Naruto dropped to the ground as soon as he was released and then sprung to his feet, his expression livid.

“Who the hell are _you_?”  the man Sasuke had hit demanded, staggering to his feet and holding a hand to his aching cheek.

Sasuke glared, “Uchiha Sasuke.”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “another one of those Konoha poisoners,” he spat out.

Sasuke kept his glare steady and after a moment the man looked away.

“ _Chi_ ’. You’re not worth it.”

Sasuke didn’t move a muscle as the man gathered his cronies around him and strode away down the street, thinning the crowd around the ramen stall considerably. He waited until the man was out of sight and then turned slightly to look at Naruto, “are you all right?”

Naruto still looked livid but it was only now that Sasuke realised the look wasn’t directed at the man who had been assaulting him; it was aimed at  _Sasuke_ .

“What the hell were you doing?!” Naruto demanded, his hands forming fists at his sides. He didn’t bother waiting for Sasuke to answer. “Gee, you always have to be mister big-shot, don’t you? Did it even enter your mind that I might have had everything completely under control or that I _didn’t need your help_?!”

Sasuke stared at him, his eyes wide, “I….”

Naruto cut him off, “all you’ve been doing for _weeks_ now is hovering after me like I’m some kind of baby in need of constant attendance! I hate to break it to you, but I’m _perfectly capable_ of taking care of myself so would you just _stop_ it!” he began to walk away but Sasuke lunged forward, catching his wrist.

“ _Naruto_ , I was just….”

“ _Leave me alone!_ ” Naruto snapped and wrenched his arm away from Sasuke, “I’m not a kid; I don’t need you to protect me!”

And with those words ringing in the air, Naruto turned and stomped off down the road leaving Sasuke to stare after him in bewildered shock.


	10. Chapter 09

## Chapter Nine

  


_Damn it._

Naruto walked quickly down the street and away from the pair of black eyes he could feel boring into the back of his head. It was with relief that he turned the corner onto another street and, not slackening his pace even a little, marched down _it_ as well.

He was already beginning to regret what he’d said to Sasuke, but at the same time he was certain it _had_ to be said. There was only so much coddling a person could stand and Naruto had reached his limit. Actually, he had reached his limit within the first week they had been travelling in the caves but he hadn’t wanted to say anything in front of Sakura because…. Naruto shook his head and stopped walking. He hadn’t particularly handled the caves well, he had to admit. While it was Sasuke he’d wanted to talk to, and occasionally yell at, it had been Sakura who had worn the brunt of his bad moods. He’d tried to stop, kept telling himself she hadn’t done anything wrong at all, had done nothing to deserve his ire, but just one look at her simpering at Sasuke and he forgot he was trying to keep his temper in check and then they were arguing again.

So maybe he did need Sasuke looking out for him; maybe he needed someone with a clear head to keep him in check. What had happened to him back in the Forest of Death, and what he’d been told afterwards by Tsunade, he hadn’t been handling it very well. He knew he should be focusing more on the _Chuunin_ exam but while he _knew_ it, it didn’t stop him from zoning out on everything around him every time….

He picked a new direction and began resolutely walking in it. He shouldn’t think about it; thinking about it just seemed to make it worse. Thinking about it was what was causing most of his problems.

Except that he had to think about it; he wished he could _talk_ about it…but who could he tell? _Nobody…._ He wanted to tell Sasuke. No…he _really_ wanted to tell Sasuke. But he couldn’t tell him. He’d tried to a couple of times…but each time he’d stopped before the first word even passed his lips. In that frozen moment every possible reaction Sasuke could have would pass rapidly through his mind and no matter how he tried to reassure himself, every single one of those imagined reactions were bad ones. The best reaction he’d predicted was that Sasuke would simply stop talking to him and that everything between them would become painfully awkward. The worst was that…. Well, the worst was that Sasuke would leave, taking their rocky friendship with him.

But what would happen when Sasuke _did_ find out? And he would, there was no doubt about that. As time went by the changes in Naruto would become painfully obvious, and, in fact, had already started to become noticeable, and then Sasuke would be doubly mad at him. Mad that Naruto hadn’t told him what was going on, and mad over what was happening in the first place. Mad at Naruto, and mad at the world...just like Naruto was.

Of course there was a solution. Tsunade had told him that she could easily seal everything away again; that everything that was happening to him didn’t _have_ to happen.... But did he _want_ that? What was happening to him was teaching him things, giving him insights into fighting and life that he would never have had before; it made things so much easier, even though it made things harder as well.

Naruto stopped walking again and slowly sunk down onto the ground, resting his hands limply in his lap and staring at them without seeing. It was so hard to make the decision; so _hard_ to think about it when so much rode on what he decided. What he wanted, wanted more than anything, was to talk about it with someone he trusted. Someone who knew, but wouldn’t advise him based on their past experiences with the Kyubi.

But that only left…

_Sasuke_.

***

_The stench of blood._

“ _Summoning no jutsu!”_

_Hot breath. Fangs._

_The Kyubi growled and snapped at the puff of smoke that appeared before it but was repelled with a sharp slice across its nose, drawing blood._

“ _What? What is this?!” a deep voice boomed out as the smoke cleared revealing the Father of all Toad summons, Gama Bunta. “Eeh?! This is a tough battle you’ve pulled me into this time!”_

_The Kyubi snarled and launched itself at the creature that had actually managed to draw its blood._

_Gama Bunta leaped out of the way quickly, soaring over the enraged beast only to be smashed flying when he impacted with one of its nine tails._

_There was a deafening crash as part of the forest was destroyed and a dust cloud flew up obscuring the view._

***

Training was harder on his own.

Naruto flew to a stop barely a foot away from a solid stone wall and collapsed against it, breathing hard. He had been training like this for nearly a week and he felt like he was getting absolutely nowhere. He knew, intellectually, that his fighting style had settled down a little as he readjusted to the new things his body wanted to do, but the feeling that he was just messing around instead of really _training_ wouldn’t leave him alone and that, if nothing else, had him trying to convince himself nearly a hundred times a day to just go _apologise_ to Sasuke for yelling at him and get his training partner back.

There were other reasons of course. Naruto missed him, horribly.

Sasuke hadn’t spoken a word to him since that day, and any time Naruto would enter a room Sasuke would leave it. The only time he _wouldn’t_ leave the room was at night in the room they shared, and Sasuke always made a point of letting Naruto know he was going to sleep _now_ and talking was _not_ an option, please and thank you.

Naruto hadn’t felt this lonely for _years_.

Naruto moved so his back was against the wall and slid down it into a sitting position, resting his elbows on his knees and looking off to the other side of the cavern. Sasuke was over there, somewhere…training with _Sakura_. He couldn’t help the bitter feeling the rose inside him at _that_ thought. The girl’s temper had improved _considerably_ since Naruto and Sasuke had had their falling out, and she was now spending every waking moment in the black-haired boys company.

It made Naruto want to deck her.

And then it made him feel _guilty_ for wanting to deck her.

And _then_ it made him mad. Why should he feel guilty that he wanted to do something about her stealing _his_ Sasuke? She was just an interloper, after all; and all she was doing was taking advantage of the situation.

But Sakura was his _friend_ , his _team-mate_ … _and_ she had been diligently attempting to get Sasuke’s attention since they were children; now that she was finally getting her wish who was _Naruto_ to get in the way like some kind of jealous rage monster?

And that was what was stopping him from simply going to Sasuke and mumbling an apology. He was jealous, and angry, and he didn’t know what to do with that. Sasuke’s friendship meant everything to him, he knew that, but when had it gotten to the point where he couldn’t imagine not having the black-haired boy by his side? When had it gotten to the point where Sakura, of all people, had become a rival in Naruto’s mind?

He ran a hand through his hair, stopping mid-way through the motion, and gripped the blond strands firmly in his fist. Somewhere his feelings must have gotten way out of control. What had happened? When had it _been_ that his joy at having Sasuke as a real _friend_ had turned into something that crossed the line? He gripped his hair a little tighter. And Sasuke…. Sasuke didn’t make the situation any easier with all his protectiveness and coddling, and constantly checking that Naruto was alright.

And it wasn’t fair on Sasuke, the other boy had had a rough childhood; far worse than what Naruto could boast, if you asked him. Everything that had happened to Sasuke and his family, and everything that had occurred with Itachi; it was small wonder that Sasuke would latch onto Naruto so tightly. Sasuke needed someone with him, some kind of constant connection to help keep him balanced. Sasuke needed someone stable, not a mess like Naruto.

And Naruto really was a mess right now, no matter how much he tried to pretend he wasn’t. He was sad, and angry, and jealous, and anxious, and worst of all, he wasn’t even sure he knew who he was any more.

***

_Gama Bunta leaped out of the way quickly, soaring over the enraged beast only to be smashed flying when he impacted with one of its nine tails._

_There was a deafening crash as part of the forest was destroyed and a dust cloud flew up obscuring the view._

_The Nine-tails didn’t wait to see if the giant toad was going to get up from the blow it had landed, it leapt straight after him, claws bared and jaws snapping open so it could get a good killing grip on it’s prey._

_Gama Bunta avoided the deadly situation by inches, earning a long scrape along his left side that began to ooze sticky warm blood instantly._

***

“…Naruto!” Naruto felt himself shaken hard. “Hey! Wake up!”

“Huh?” he blurrily opened his eyes and tried to focus on the dark shape hovering over him.

“Naruto! Are you awake?”

“Yeah…what’s wrong?”

“You were having a bad dream, or something,” Sasuke replied and sat back on the edge of the bed.

“A bad…oh. It’s nothing, Sasuke. Go back to sleep,” Naruto said and settled back against his pillows.

“Are you su-…”

“Yes. Go back to sleep, Sasuke!” Naruto snapped.

Sasuke remained still for a moment and then stood silently and went back to the other side of the room.

Naruto lay for a moment staring up into the darkness. The first time Sasuke had so much as squeaked in his direction in over a week…and Naruto had driven him off. He was an idiot.

Pulling his blankets up around his chin, Naruto rolled over and firmly closed his eyes.

***

“ _How are you feeling?” Tsunade asked the question as soon as Naruto had taken a seat across from her._

“ _Exhausted,” Naruto replied honestly and met her eyes, cutting to the chase. “What’s happening to me?”_

_Tsunade looked away for a moment, then looked back. “Back when you were in your coma you lost a lot of chakra,” she began slowly and Naruto nodded in irritation, waiting for her to continue. “When you lost so much chakra the Seal…”_

***

  


“…you will no longer do fighting as a group so if any of you feel the need to drop out of this _Chuunin_ exam you may do so without jeopardising the chances of the rest of your team. There is no shame in living to fight another day; if you doubt your skill you may drop out now so that you can train to participate in the next _Chuunin_ exam. If you wish to leave, please raise your hand.”

Naruto looked around absently and counted nearly ten people who, with slightly shamed looks, lifted their hands. Naruto nodded slightly to himself as he noticed the looks of some of them, it was their own strength to realise they didn’t stand a chance against most of the people that had been left at the end of the first part of Hidden Dark’s _Chuunin_ exam.

The ten who had given up left the large cavern quickly and Naruto counted the people remaining; only sixteen. There would still have to be preliminary fights to eliminate half of them for the final fights to decide who would gain the rank of _Chuunin_.

“Is that all?” the speaker, the same man who had addressed them before the first task, asked. “Very well. There will now be a series of elimination matches to cut your numbers down again by half, only the best will be able to proceed passed this point. You will fight each other one at a time, when your names are called please come into the arena.”

Naruto followed Sasuke and Sakura as they moved to the edges of the large circle-shaped fighting area that was set into the floor of the cavern. He only watched the fighting that was going on with half an eye, and even less attention, he wasn’t really interested and the fighting didn’t look to be in all that advanced a state anyway. There was no doubt he could pass the exam if this was the level of fighting in it and he had much more important things to think about.

Like Sasuke, and if the boy would ever forgive Naruto. He’d done it already, not once, but twice, when Naruto had interfered with Sasuke’s revenge against Itachi, and when he’d revealed about the Kyubi; but how much was to much? How many things could Naruto do, how many things could he mess up, before Sasuke reached his limit? Because Sasuke was going to find out about Naruto’s new secret. It wasn’t an ‘if’, it was a ‘when’ and Naruto didn’t know what he was supposed to do about it. Should he tell him now? If he told him now Sasuke would be angry, but not as angry as he would be if Naruto didn’t tell him and he found out another way. But then Naruto would have to face the black-haired boys rejection and, he had realised over the days not talking to Sasuke, that the idea of Sasuke rejecting him was unbearable.

But if he didn’t tell him? If he pushed Sasuke away and created as much distance between them as he could? He’d still loose Sasuke, but there wouldn’t be any rejection; not to his face, anyway. Sasuke would find out, would be angry, and hurt, but the damage would have already been done. Naruto would have already pushed him away; the wounds might not be as deep.

But was that fair to Sasuke? Sasuke, who had stayed Naruto’s friend even though he was an idiot. Sasuke, who cared enough about Naruto’s welfare to be worried about him when he was acting strangely. Sasuke, whom had lost everyone he cared about already and probably couldn’t stand to lose anybody else?

Sasuke, whom Naruto was so scared to lose.

It was circular, of course. This argument would go on forever if Naruto let it. He just couldn’t decide; what was best for Sasuke? What should he chose? What should he do?

He didn’t know. He just didn’t.

“Hey.”

Naruto was prodded out of his musings by a gentle poke in his side and Sasuke’s quiet voice.

“Sakura’s up,” Sasuke elaborated, once he realised he had Naruto’s attention.

Naruto jerked his head around to see the centre of the room where Sakura had already taken up a defensive stance. He hadn’t even noticed...he was a terrible friend.

“We meet again, little girl,” the man facing off against the girl said stretching out his arms as he smirked at her.

Sakura met the man’s look coolly, “looks that way.”

“Try not to run away this time, girl-y. I’m looking forward to a good fight.”

Sakura lifted her hands higher in front of her, ready to fight, “since you asked so nicely.”

Naruto lifted his eyebrow slightly and then had to suppress a pang in his chest as he unconsciously moved slightly closer to Sasuke to ask if the boy knew what that could have been about. He forced himself to stay still and refocused on the fight.

Sakura, much to her opponents surprise, won easily; breaking his arm on the first flurry of hand-to-hand, knocking his feet out from under him as he reeled back out of shock, and putting a kunai to his throat in seconds. He gave up immediately, his face a mask of terror.

Sakura rejoined them a moment later and answered both Naruto and Sasuke’s curious looks with a simple, “I had to repay him for sending the two of you over the cliff.”

Naruto’s lips twitched up into a smile.

Sasuke’s fight was next and was over in the same time, if not faster, than Sakura’s. The man Sasuke had been up against had looked tough and so Sasuke adjusted accordingly, hitting hard with the first blow. With a look of disgust Sasuke had waited for the judge to declare him the win and walked away from the unconscious man without bothering to look back.

By the time it was Naruto’s turn everyone in the room had moved away from team seven and their Sensei, who hadn’t even looked up from his smut book as the fights had progressed.

Naruto walked slowly out into the arena with his hands in his pockets and looked disinterestedly at his opponent; he recognised him as the large, over-muscled man that had attempted to beat him up in front of the ramen stand over two-weeks beforehand. Naruto felt his eyes narrow as he looked at him; this man had led to Naruto’s estrangement from Sasuke. This man would pay for that.

“I feel I have to give you a warning,” Naruto said, standing side on to the man and looking at him out of the corners of his eyes, “I have a grudge against you; it’d be better for you if you gave up now.”

The man laughed. “Give up to a sneaky little poisoner like you? Just because the little girl in your team can outclass a pip-squeak and the tall kid can pack a punch, don’t assume you can even touch me.”

Naruto paused and then turned his head fully to look at the man. The man stepped back slightly in shock as Naruto’s red eyes met his.

“Oh? Are you tough, then? I could use a challenge right about now,” Naruto said.

“I-ah....” The man looked less sure, but seemed to rally himself.

“Are you both ready?” the judge asked and Naruto nodded once. “Then begin.”

Naruto remained in the same position, his body side-on to the man, his hands in his pockets, and waited.

“Mocking little brat!” Naruto’s opponent exclaimed angrily and came at him.

Naruto lifted an eyebrow at the power behind the punch and admitted that, if it connected, it would certainly hurt. A good thing it wouldn’t hit him, then. He dodged out of the way at the last second and finally pulled his hands out of his pockets and punched the man in the gut. The man doubled over immediately but was stopped by Naruto’s finger landing in the centre of his forehead and keeping him upright for just a second.

“This is a trick I learnt from the fifth Hokage,” Naruto said humourlessly, “two times over.”

And then Naruto flicked him right between the eyes.

Instantly his opponent flew backwards through the air, missing the judge by barely an inch as he flew passed, and slammed into the wall and then to the floor in a tumble of rock chips and dust.

Naruto stood up straight and put his hands back in his pockets and waited for the Judge’s confirmation that he had won.

Naruto ignored the further fights for the rest of the day.

***

_Gama Bunta avoided the deadly situation by inches, earning a long scrape along his left side that began to ooze sticky warm blood instantly._

“ _I hope you have a **plan**!” he demanded of the human crouching on his head._

“ _We have to wear it down; sap some of its energy,” came the prompt reply._

“ _Fine, fine. But if whatever you’re trying doesn’t work I’ll never reply to your Summon again,” the giant toad warned._

“ _That probably won’t be a problem. Careful, it’s coming!”_

***

They had only a week to prepare themselves for the final _Chuunin_ fights. The short time limit didn’t bother Naruto at all; he had other things to worry about.

Like the fact that Sasuke and Sakura had just left to go on an idle walk together. She had asked him and Sasuke had actually agreed. Maybe it was because he had sensed Naruto in the doorway and had wanted an excuse to leave the room, but....

It was a good ten minutes after the two had left that Naruto realised he was still hovering in the doorway, his mind lost in a constantly spinning circle.

“Are you going to stay there all day, or actually come into the room?” a bored voice said, and Naruto realised that Kakashi had probably been watching him stand around dumbly for the last ten minutes, at least. Brilliant.

Peeling his hand away from where it was tightly wrapped around the door frame, Naruto walked into the room and threw himself down into one of the chairs at the utilitarian table.

“And how are we today?” Kakashi inquired, his eyes still trained on his book.

Naruto knew better than to think the man wasn’t paying attention, Kakashi had always had a thing for irritating people and he had figured out young that appearing to be absorbed in a frivolous book was one of the best ways to get under someone’s skin. Naruto rubbed his forehead slightly, as if pained.

“Put the book down when you’re talking to someone, _baka_. There’s nothing worse than a rude ninja.”

The book snapped shut and Naruto suddenly felt Kakashi’s attention on him intensely, “is that any way to talk to your Sensei, Naruto?”

“That never stopped you,” Naruto paused in the act of rubbing his forehead, his eyes widening. “I…err…mean… I bet that never stopped you,” Naruto launched himself to his feet and headed for the door. “I’m going to train.”

***

“ _That probably won’t be a problem. Careful, it’s coming!”_

_Gama Bunta put his expert reflexes to work again and dived to the left, narrowly avoiding a new set of claw scars along his face and destroying hundreds of trees as he landed._

“ _Reforestation will be hard after this,” he noted absently._

_The human on his head laughed, “don’t worry, the Hokage will see everything is restored.”_

“ _The Hokage…?” Gama Bunta dodged again, this time slicing his knife out as he went and giving the Kyubi a new cut along it’s flank. “So, that’s the kind of plan you have then.”_

“ _You could say that…. **Crouch**!” he suddenly commanded and a wall of water instantly appeared in front of the giant toad, effectively blocking an enraged attack from the Kyubi._

“ _All I’m doing is exhausting myself, here,” Gama Bunta warned in his thunderous voice._

“ _I understand. I’ll begin the second half of the plan now. Keep me covered, I won’t be able to respond to anything for a while.”_

“ _Consider it done.”_

***

There were three days until the final exam.

Three more days of training on his own.

Three more days of pretending he didn’t care that he was alone.

Three more days till he could get this _Chuunin_ exam over and done with and go home, back to Konoha.

Three more days till he could see Tsunade, the only one who fully understood what was going on with him.

Three more days till he had to make his decision.

Naruto tapped his fingers on the table and looked across it to where Sasuke and Sakura sat discussing fighting styles. Sasuke had tried to leave earlier, but Sakura had managed to convince him to stay so Naruto, perverse being that he was, had sat down directly across the table from them and had pretended not to be paying any attention what-so-ever.

But he was paying attention, listening intently to every murmured word and seething silently. He had no right to interfere, he had no right to be so angry, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

_Selfish._

“I’m going to bed,” he stated suddenly, making the two on the other side of the table start slightly in surprise.

Sasuke watched him silently as he pushed his chair back, stood up, and headed for the bedroom. Sakura waved and wished him goodnight and Naruto forced himself to wave back at her before slipping into the safety of the bedroom and shutting the door behind him.

Three more days, he reassured himself as he began to change into his pyjamas. He just had to wait, then the decision had to made, he wouldn’t be able to get around it. Sasuke would find out and Naruto would know what to do one way, or the other.

Or he could just tell the other boy now. Naruto could sit him down, explain everything, and let Sasuke decide for himself. If Sasuke rejected him then...then Naruto’s decision would be made. He would know what to do because if Sasuke wasn’t willing to forgive him for being such a jerk lately, if he wasn’t willing to still be his friend, then there really wasn’t a choice.

Naruto looked up suddenly as the door opened and Sasuke stepped in, shutting the door behind him. The black-haired boy froze in the doorway, looking over at Naruto as if he hadn’t expected the other boy to be there, and then turned away and stepped over to his own bed.

Naruto bit his lip and quickly climbed into his bed. It was all well and good to make the decisions on his own, but the reality of Sasuke, right in front of Naruto and probably more than ready to hear what he had to say, changed everything.

Naruto watched silently as Sasuke changed into his sleeping clothes and then flicked out the light, then he settled for listening to the other boy get into bed and get comfortable.

_Damn it_.

***

“ _I understand. I’ll begin the second half of the plan now. Keep me covered, I won’t be able to respond to anything for a while.”_

“ _Consider it done.”_

_The next ten minutes were filled with the sounds of chanting and destruction as Gama Bunta, hurting from a dozen sluggishly bleeding injuries, struggled to keep the man who had summoned him away from the enraged nine-tails._

_By the time the chanting stopped, the giant toad and fox had paused their furious movement and were sizing each other up, trying to gauge which one of them had the most chakra left._

“ _Where are we? How far are we from where we started?” the voice sounded strained._

_Gama Bunta changed his stance slightly, checking the area, “not far, we’ve doubled back. We’ll land on the village soon, if we keep this up.”_

“ _Good,” a few deep breaths, “where is the Hokage?”_

_Gama Bunta concentrated for a moment, “not far behind us, approaching rapidly.”_

“ _Perfect. Bunta…. Thank you for helping me this far; hopefully this plan will work, I’ll need your help for it to succeed.”_

_The giant toad adjusted its stance again as the nine-tails began to move, circling to the left, “anything you need, just say it.”_

“ _When the Hokage arrives, get him as close to me as you can.”_

_One giant eye turned upwards, attempting to see the man on his head, “and where will you be?”_

“ _On the Kyubi,” the man replied simply and began to run, using his chakra to push himself as far up into the air as he could and guiding himself so that he came down perfectly on the startled Kyubi’s head._

_Quickly he attached himself with chakra and thrust his hands out, finally activating the jutsu he had been chanting for the last ten minutes. “This is on behalf of all those killed and everything you destroyed._ **Eight Divination Sealing Style: Four Image Seal** _**!** ”_

_For the man focusing every inch of his chakra on the Kyubi, everything seemed to slow down till moving through time was almost physically painful. The Kyubi thrashed around attempting to dislodge him but couldn’t get him to break his iron grip and something…something cold, something **evil** reached through him, using him as its rapport with the real world as it reached out and wrapped a firm hand around the Kyubi’s soul and **pulled**._

_The man gasped at the cold pulling sensation, even as the Kyubi began to shudder, resisting the pull with everything it had. The man held on grimly and focused the last of his chakra. The cold arm pulled again and there came a sound that was more felt than heard, like something had suddenly been torn free. There was a rushing sensation in the man’s chest and then suddenly there was a yell behind him, a familiar sound. The Hokage._

“ **Kinjutsu! Magaru no seishun** _ **!!** ”_

_The man felt hands push down on his shoulder blades as the words were yelled and he knew, knew with relief, hope and pride, that the plan had worked. It had worked._

_The world seemed to freeze for a moment as all the conflicting jutsu battled it out with each other and then, slowly, soft light began to swirl around the man who had successfully begun the Sealing of the Nine-tails fox demon within himself. And then they were falling._

_As they fell the clothing around the man fell away as his body began to shrink and by the time they reached the ground, Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of the village of Konoha, held in his arms a seemingly newborn baby with a shock of bright blond hair and the swirling marks of the Four Image Seal around his belly button._

_Sarutobi looked down at the knowing eyes of the child affectionately and then put a hand on his forehead releasing a second jutsu he had prepared as they fell._

“ _We will miss your guiding hand,” he said simply. “Your sacrifice will be remembered, even if only by those who will become Hokage after me. Grow well, your place will be ready for you when you are ready to reclaim it.”_

***

Naruto sat bolt upright, knocking back the shadow that was hovering over him, and sending them both crashing off the bed and onto the floor in a tangle of limbs and blankets.

“Narut-, _Naruto!_ Stop struggling so I can untangle the blankets!”

Naruto went still at Sasuke’s command and concentrated on breathing. A few moments later the blanket he was tangled in was hauled off of him and then a hand wrapped itself around his arm and pulled him upright.

“Are you all right?”

Naruto focused his gaze and activated the Kyubi’s chakra so he could see Sasuke’s anxious face hovering near his.

“Y-yeah. I’m fine.”

Sasuke frowned, staring at Naruto intently. “No, you’re not,” he said eventually and pulled Naruto to his feet and dumped him on the bed. “You haven’t been ‘fine’ since what happened in the Forest of Death.”

“Sasuke…” Naruto said warningly but was ignored.

Sasuke dropped himself down onto the bed beside Naruto. “Tell me what’s going on,” he commanded.

“W-what?!”

“I said, tell me what’s going on. I’m sick of this, Naruto.”

“T-There’s nothing….”

“Don’t even think about saying that!” Sasuke snapped over top of him and grabbed his arm, tightly. “We both know it’s not true so lets just skip that entire argument and get on to the bit where you explain!”

Naruto’s eyes narrowed and he wrenched his arm out of Sasuke’s grip, “what’s it to you? I don’t have to tell you anything!”

Sasuke met his gaze firmly and they stayed that way for a few moments before Sasuke finally sighed a very tired sigh and closed his eyes, “just tell me, Naruto. We can fight about it all you like later.”

“Why…why are you asking now?” Naruto asked and pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them.

“Why…? Because if I don’t, you won’t tell me,” Sasuke replied. “I’ve been waiting for nearly a month for you to come to terms with whatever your problem is and tell me…. I’m sick of waiting.”

“Waiting….” Naruto turned an accusatory glare on Sasuke, “if you were waiting for me to explain then why have you been avoiding me?”

Sasuke’s tone turned annoyed, “because you told me to leave you alone.”

“Sasuke. It’s one thing to leave someone alone, it’s entirely another to completely desert them.”

“Desert? I didn’t…” Sasuke turned a surprised look on Naruto and then puffed out a breath and put an arm around the blond’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “ _Baka_! I wouldn’t desert you.”

“Oh, really? You left every room I came in to, and even started hanging around with Sakura!” Naruto accused.

“Naruto, you have no idea how uncomfortable it is to have someone staring a hole in your head constantly for hours on end, do you?”

“What does that…?”

“You did that to me. I figured that meant you wanted me to leave.”

“Oh…,” Naruto sucked his lower lip into his mouth for a minute. “Sorry, but that doesn’t explain Sakura.”

“She asked me for help training,” Sasuke replied. “She really needs to pass this exam. She wanted to ask you too, but….”

“Are you saying this is all my fault?!” Naruto demanded.

“Yes,” Sasuke stated and then glared at Naruto. “Now stop changing the subject. This isn’t why you’ve been acting so strangely lately.”

Naruto went silent.

“ _Naruto_!”

“Fine! Fine….” he could do this! He could tell Sasuke and everything would be.... Well, everything might be fine. He was worrying for nothing. He took a breath, “you know I have the Kyubi sealed within me.”

“Yes,” Sasuke agreed guardedly.

“I found out after what happened at the Forest of Death that things went a little further than that….”

“Further?”

Naruto hesitated. Sasuke had just said he would never desert him, did he mean it? Naruto closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of Sasuke’s arm over his shoulders.

“Originally, I was told that the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to seal the Kyubi into an orphaned child. That story wasn’t precisely correct,” he took a breath. Breathing was important. “The Fourth did sacrifice his life, and the Kyubi was sealed inside an orphaned child; however, what I wasn’t told was that the Fourth _was_ the orphaned child.”

Silence.

Then, “…Naruto, the Fourth was an adult.”

“I know. There’s a jutsu, a Forbidden jutsu that can change a full grown adult back to what they were on the day of their birth. It has…a lot of complicated requirements to work correctly. We managed to fill them all, though it took a lot of hard work, and it was torture having to wait the extra few days after we were already ready so that it was the day of my original birth, but we waited. I…he… _I_ used the Eight divination sealing style to seal the Kyubi within myself; it was complicated getting the timing right. If the Third had have been just a second to late then I would have died in sacrifice to the Death the jutsu is preformed for…” Naruto paused, still concentrating on the arm lying across his shoulders. “The Third used the youth jutsu to interrupt the Sealing, regressing me back to the form of a baby, and effectively sealing the Kyubi within myself instead of it passing straight through.”

“If that’s how it happened, then why didn’t you know until now?” Sasuke asked slowly.

Naruto turned his head slightly to stare at his best friend, “Tsunade-san explained that to me after what happened in the Forest of Death. The Kyubi couldn’t be sealed within someone who could be easily influenced by its power, or its evil, the only choice was to seal it in an innocent, a baby. Because I chose myself to be the ‘sacrifice’ my memories had to be sealed, completely. The Third did it.”

“And?”

“When I was in that coma…,” the arm Sasuke had around Naruto’s shoulders tensed slightly, “I was draining a lot of chakra. The old-hag-Hokage said that the form of sealing the Third used worked by constantly feeding on my chakra to stay powerful enough that no memories would accidentally leak through. When I was draining so much chakra, though, it caused damage to the memory seal that it couldn’t repair and so bits and pieces began to filter through. I was having funny dreams and things for months. When we were in the Forest of Death…well, I’d used up a lot of _c_ _hakra_ again and the seal was already weak, then when I thought you were going to die I just sort of…searched my memory for the most powerful fire technique I knew and ended up with what you saw; a forbidden jutsu that I learnt from the Forbidden Scrolls when I became the Fourth Hokage.”

Silence. Again.

After a while, Naruto began to fidget. What was Sasuke thinking? He hadn’t moved his arm, but was that just because he was so stunned by the information that he couldn’t move?

“S-Sasuke?”

Sasuke moved.

Not really thinking about it, acting out of fear and desperation, Naruto spun in Sasuke’s grip and wrapped his arms around the black-haired boy’s chest, knocking him flat onto the bed.

“Don’t go!”

Sasuke blinked and then frowned awkwardly at the mop of blond hair that was tickling his chin, “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere, _b_ _aka_.”

Naruto’s grip tightened slightly and he moved so he could look up at Sasuke’s face, “really?”

“Yes,” Sasuke said testily, “now would you stop crushing me?”

Naruto blushed, “s-sorry.” He unwound his arms from around Sasuke and began to push himself back into a sitting position.

“You don’t have to get up,” Sasuke said lowly.

Naruto paused, searching Sasuke’s expression.

“I told you to stop crushing me, that doesn’t mean you have to get off me,” Sasuke said and held out his hand.

Naruto stared at it for a moment and then back at Sasuke’s face, “I...I didn’t mean....”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, “I know.”

“You don’t,” Naruto paused. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere near the way he had imagined, “you don’t know what you’re saying. I’m trying to tell you who I really am, I’m telling you I’m more than just an idiot, or a demon. I’m….”

Sasuke lowered his arm and sat up slightly, leaning on it. “I get it, Naruto. I understand what you’re saying, but we’ve had this conversation. If I didn’t care that you had the Kyubi inside you, why would you think I’d care about this? It doesn’t change things. You’re still Naruto. I know what I’m saying.”

“No, you don’t! This is...this is more than just... It’s more than the Kyubi. There’s another person inside of me, another ‘me’, and we’re not the same. He’s...different.”

Sasuke sighed and sat up properly, “so, what are you doing about it? What did the Hokage say? Does Kakashi know?”

“The old hag said that she can seal the memories if I want her to...and no, Kakashi-Sensei doesn’t know,” Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring towards the covered window.

“So what’s the problem?” Sasuke said. “Get her to seal the memories when we get home.”

Naruto instantly deflated, “I-I…. But they’re my…. I remember so many things…. If I seal them again….”

The room fell silent and Naruto occupied himself by watching Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. How could he explain? There was so much more to what was happening to him than just memories. There were thoughts, and feelings. Ingrained habits, knowledge he didn’t even know where it came from. It was like a whole other person was awakening inside him. The other him, the past him, his memories were all so good, so happy, and he’d been so strong. He knew things about Kakashi, about Tusnade, about Jiraiya; they were family. Family in a way he’d never really understood before.

“You’ll just have to decide what is more important to you,” Sasuke said at length and stood up. “Make your decision after the _c_ _huunin_ exam.”

“That’s just what that Tsunade-san said,” Naruto said with annoyance.

“The Hokage knows what she’s talking about. It’s late and we’ll have training tomorrow, we should sleep.”

“Yeah…I guess.” Naruto agreed then looked up shyly, “you don’t think you could…. I mean, could you stay on this side of the room tonight? I just... I mean....” he didn’t even know what he meant, but he was still scared. Scared Sasuke would leave, would hate him, maybe. Scared of being alone.

Sasuke paused, then nodded slightly and stepped back over to Naruto’s bed and sat down.

Naruto made room for Sasuke to get into the bed next to him and then, after much shuffling around, they settled down with Naruto half laying on Sasuke’s shoulder and Sasuke’s arm back around his shoulders.

“Thank you,” Naruto half-whispered the words against Sasuke’s shoulder and the boy snorted lightly.

“I guess you really are different,” he said, amused.

Relaxing, finally, Naruto was asleep within seconds.

***

“Are you two planning on getting up any time soon?” the voice of Kakashi was followed closely by the door flying open with a bang.

Naruto sat bolt upright and, not realising how close he was to the edge of the bed, fell out.

There was a moment of silence and then Sasuke sat up and, peering briefly over the edge of the bed to make sure Naruto was alright, looked over at Kakashi who was still standing, a little warily, in the doorway.

“What time is it?” he asked.

Kakashi scratched his jaw slowly, appearing to think it over, “somewhere around mid-morning, I would imagine.”

“We’ll be up soon,” Sasuke said flatly and looked pointedly at the door.

“Right-o!” Kakashi said brightly and went to shut the door. “Oh, and Sakura already left to train,” he added as an afterthought and then shut the door.

Sasuke pushed the blankets back and got out of bed, stepping over Naruto who was still sitting, slightly shell-shocked, on the floor.

“Hurry up and get dressed, _dobe_. We only have three more days to train in.”

Naruto moved his gaze from the now closed door to Sasuke. “How can you be so calm?” he demanded.

Sasuke paused in the process of pulling on his shirt and looked over his shoulder at Naruto with a frown, “what?”

Naruto stared at him incredulously, “Kakashi just walked in of us _sleeping together_.”

“And?” Sasuke asked irritably, pulling his shirt the rest of the way on.

“And? How can you say 'and’? What’s he going to think?”

“Whatever he wants,” Sasuke shrugged and began pulling on his pants.

“W-whatever he wants…,” Naruto repeated disbelievingly. “Doesn’t it bother you at _all_?”

Sasuke finally turned his full attention on Naruto, resting a hand on his hip as he turned to look at him intensely.

“Why is it bothering _you_ so much?”

“W-why? Because…what will he _think_? Kakashi-Sensei is a pervert, he’s bound to come up with all sorts of ideas, and who knows _what_ he’ll say to Sakura! Do you really want Sakura to know you spent the night in _my_ bed?”

Sasuke kept his intense look on Naruto for a long moment and then turned back to his task of getting dressed.

“I couldn’t care less if Sakura finds out, and Kakashi can think, and say, anything he likes.”

“But….”

“Stop worrying about it, Naruto, and get up.”

Naruto turned his gaze to the floor and then slowly pulled himself to his feet. “You’re being overly calm about this, Sasuke,” Naruto said once he was standing, his voice slightly calmer than before. “Later on, when Kakashi is ribbing you every three seconds about it and Sakura is avoiding you because she thinks you…you _slept_ with me,” he warned, “you’re really going to regret it.”

Sasuke finished fastening on his weapons and turned to look at Naruto.

“I don’t think so,” he said finally.

“That’s because you’re not _thinking_ about it,” Naruto said firmly.

“I assure you, Naruto, I’ve thought about it a lot,” Sasuke walked towards the door. “Now get dressed, so we can go.”

Naruto’s expression grew annoyed, “you’re not listening to me, Sasuke! You can’t just shrug and assume everything will turn out alright!”

Sasuke stopped walking, pausing with his hand on the door handle, and turned his head to look at Naruto over his shoulder, “I know. If anybody has taught me that, it’s you.”

Naruto breathed in sharply.

“We need to talk, Naruto, but not now,” Sasuke continued, seriously. “We have to train and get through this exam before anything else, and we can’t afford to be distracted.”

“I’d say that this is pretty distracting, on top of everything else.”

Sasuke’s lips twitched, slowly forming his customary smirk, “good. That means it’s important. Now, hurry up so we can go. I won’t wait if you’re late.”

***

  


Sakura was _not_ impressed that Naruto and Sasuke were training together again. For the last week or so she had, for once in her life, had Sasuke’s attention firmly on her and nothing _but_ her. But now, apparently out of the blue, Sasuke had dropped her like a hot rock and gone back to Naruto.

It wasn’t _fair_ , Sakura decided as she watched Sasuke and Naruto resume their training; training, she could tell at a glance, that she had no hope of ever catching up with. What was it about Naruto that managed to grab Sasuke’s attention _every time_ he so much as twitched? Even _Sasuke_ would be the first to state that Naruto was an idiot, he was also dense, naïve, not to mention _annoying_.

Sakura chewed on her bottom lip as she watched the two and barely took any notice as Kakashi moved to lean against the wall beside her. The man remained silent for a few moments, giving the impression to anyone who didn’t know him well that he was completely enthralled with his book.

“You _do_ understand, right?” Kakashi said finally, not even lifting his gaze.

Sakura looked at him sharply and then firmly moved her gaze back to Sasuke and Naruto, “no! I don’t. Not at _all_.”

Kakashi sighed and finally moved his eyes from the pages of his book to his student, “don’t you? Even after all this time?”

“What am I supposed to understand?” Sakura snapped and turned her glare on him, meeting his eyes. “Those two…they’re…they’re _boys_. And it’s _Naruto_! Sasuke has to rebuild his clan, he can’t do that with Naruto. And _Naruto_ wants to be _Hokage_ one day, how’s he going to manage that with a _male_ lover? What will people think of him?”

Kakashi lifted an eyebrow, “I don’t think Naruto really cares at this point what people think about him, and Sasuke….” Kakashi let his gaze move to said-mentioned boy who was currently attempting to dodge a flame jutsu Naruto had reflected back at him. “I don’t think he ever really expected to live long enough to restore his clan in the first place,” Kakashi said quietly, “killing the man who killed his family was always his first priority, everything else came second.”

“But now there’s Naruto,” Sakura said, almost a challenge.

Kakashi moved his eyes back to Sakura, his expression serious. “Would you have preferred he lived out his life devoted completely to revenge? Somewhere along the lines Naruto became Sasuke’s first priority, try to be happy for them, Sakura. This is better than what _could_ have happened.”

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek and glared at the stone floor of the cavern, “I know, but…” she stopped suddenly as Kakashi let out a delighted chuckle and turned to glare at him. The man had his book drawn up close to his face and was reading avidly. “ _Argh!_ ” Sakura stomped her foot hard against the ground, “ _Listen to people when they’re talking to you seriously!_ ” she yelled.

“Oh, were we still talking?” Kakashi asked, sparing her half a glance before going back to his reading.

Sakura stared at the man incredulously for a moment and then spun on her heel and stomped away, muttering under her breath as she went.

***

Sakura glared at Naruto, who glared at Sasuke, who ignored them both to concentrate on finishing his dinner, seemingly completely oblivious to the tension that surrounded him at the dinner table.

In the corner of the room, his feet up on a chair before him and his nose apparently buried in his book, Kakashi suppressed a sigh and let his uncovered eye move over each of his students in turn.

The situation his students were in, he decided, was completely backwards. Not so much the subject matter as the way the kids where going about it. Somehow, contrary to anything he would have expected, Sasuke had opened up, Naruto had closed up like a clam and Sakura had failed to be the understanding girl she always projected herself to be.

Still…. Kakashi was sure that the girl would come around. She had spent years pining over Sasuke and blinding herself to what was slowly happening between he and Naruto; what she really needed was time to adjust her way of thinking and to come to terms with it. Essentially, she’d be fine.

No… It was definitely Naruto that Kakashi found himself watching with a sharp eye, unsure if he should leave things be for the boy to work out himself, or if he should take him aside and have as much of a fatherly chat with him as could manage to scrounge up.

He would have voted for the fatherly chat option, despite how horrifying he found the idea, except that the boy seemed to have more on his mind than simply coming to terms with his feelings for Sasuke. And there had been times…times when it almost seemed….

Kakashi lifted a hand and idly scratched at his cheek before closing his book and slipping it into his weapons pouch as he rose to his feet.

“All right, kiddies,” he said into the tense silence. “Time for bed,” he stated and then eyed Sasuke and Naruto for a moment before walking passed them to his own room. “And make sure it’s your own beds tonight, boys. You’ll need all the rest you can get for your training tomorrow.”

***

“I can’t believe he did that,” Naruto was sitting on the edge of his bed, his gaze fixed sightlessly on the floor. “Do you know, he was an okay kid when he was little. I can’t believe he did that.”

“You know what Kakashi’s like, you can’t say you weren’t expecting it,” Sasuke stated from where he was calmly stripping down to sleep.

“But he…but he….” Naruto shook his head and looked up at Sasuke, wide-eyed. “Did you see Sakura’s face? Did you?!”

Sasuke sighed, “Naruto…” he began but the boy had already launched straight back into the shell-shocked state he’d been in when Sasuke had pulled him into the bedroom a few minutes before hand.

“…she looked like she was going to murder me! Or you! This is all your fault!” Naruto pointed at Sasuke for emphasis. “You’re being to calm. And Kakashi-sensei… _Argh_! This is just some sort of sick twisted game to him. Sakura’s probably having kittens right now….”

“Is that so important to you,” Sasuke asked suddenly, interrupting Naruto’s rant.

“What?”

Sasuke’s expression became irritated and he suddenly turned away, focusing on pulling the blankets of his bed down, “is it so important to you, what Sakura thinks of you? What she might think is going on between us?”

“Of course it-!” Naruto began and then suddenly snapped his mouth shut. Slowly he put his hand to his forehead and rubbed it, closing his eyes as if pained. “This,” he declared finally, “is difficult. Let’s just…let’s just sleep for now and we’ll talk about it later.”

“Fine,” Sasuke agreed, not looking at him and climbing into bed.

Naruto stared at him helplessly for a moment and then walked over to the door and flicked the light switch that was beside it, turning off the lights.

***

  


Sasuke was frustrated. The final fights for the _Chuunin_ exam were tomorrow and, while Sasuke would have preferred to be training, Kakashi had declared the day before the fights to be a day of relaxation.

Sasuke hardly felt relaxed.

He knew he should be taking Kakashi’s advice; the best thing for him to do right now was to put everything out of his head, to focus himself, and get into the right mindset to fight in the exam. It wasn’t just about winning, the exam was about showcasing what you were capable of; of not just being strong, but also being smart. You had to show you could handle any situation thrown at you.

But it was hard to concentrate on the exam with Sakura glaring at him from one direction, and Naruto glaring at her from the other.

Sakura was angry at Sasuke, which wasn’t particularly surprising given the circumstances. She’d had her heart set on somehow winning Sasuke over one day, and no amount of hints to the contrary had ever made her give up; to find out now, at this late stage, that she’d really never stood a chance had to be hard on her, and Sasuke wasn’t inclined to blame her for being disappointed. They were friends, and Sasuke believed that, once she got used to the idea, she’d forgive both he and Naruto for not being what she wanted them to be.

The bigger issue, for Sasuke, was Naruto. The blond wavered between glaring at Sakura angrily, as if the shear force of his anger would make her leave Sasuke alone, and staring at her guiltily, as if he’d done something awful and had no idea how to make it up to her. It pissed Sasuke off.

The degenerating memory seal was to blame, at least partially, for Naruto’s wild mood swings and, while Sasuke didn’t fully understand it, he was willing to give the other boy some leeway with it in mind. But, Naruto’s yes/no attitude where Sasuke was concerned couldn’t just be blamed on that. Sasuke could tell that Naruto wanted to be with Sasuke and that be cared, probably just as much as Sasuke himself did, but just when Sasuke thought they were getting to a point where they could discuss it properly, Naruto would pull back and start acting like it was the end of the world.

Sasuke really didn’t get that. In his mind things were black or white; either Naruto wanted it or he didn’t. Sasuke could handle Naruto asking to stay friends, he would never had given up on their friendship anyway, but Naruto hadn’t asked for that. More than that, Naruto had seemed just as attached to Sasuke as Sasuke was to him, so why the drama? Sakura? Surely Naruto already knew that Sasuke had no intention of romancing the girl? But perhaps it was Sakura for another reason? Naruto had always had a crush on the girl, had practically thrown himself at her at every opportunity. Maybe he was waiting to see if, now Sakura seemed to be getting over her own crush, she would notice Naruto?

No.

No, Sasuke was sure that wasn’t it. There was an understanding between he and Naruto, a bond that no one else could hope to comprehend, and he felt he would have known if Naruto didn’t echo his feelings.

So, it wasn’t Sakura. At least, not really; she was an excuse. And excuse for what, though, Sasuke wasn’t exactly sure. Something was going on in Naruto’s head beyond just this second personality he’d told Sasuke about, something that made him search for reasons to hold back.

Maybe it was Sasuke.

Sasuke was the first to admit he wasn’t the easiest person to get along with; he internalized a lot of what he felt, and often tried his best to hide the things he thought from others. And his desire to revenge himself against his families murderer didn’t help matters; he was an Avenger, and even he couldn’t control the rage that bubbled up inside him when the subject of his brother was brought up. But he’d been trying. Trying for Naruto, and for a future he had never thought he would have. He’d realised, somewhere along the way, that he had never expected to live passed killing Itachi. He had always said one of his goals was to resurrect his clan, but deep down he had known that his priority had been killing _that man_. It hadn’t occurred to him that there could be anything else.

Until Naruto.

Naruto had changed everything. Where once all Sasuke had seen was a future of revenge and death, Naruto had inserted the idea of making things better than they were. He had looked at the world and decided it could be better, that _he_ could make it better, and that Sasuke would be there with him while he did it. And Sasuke had realised he’d wanted that; he wanted to be at Naruto’s side while the blond wrangled hundreds of years of blood-soaked tradition into line and remade the world into the brighter place it could be.

But did Naruto know that? Sasuke had tried, he thought, to let Naruto know that that was what he wanted, but maybe he hadn’t done it right? Maybe Naruto had no idea and was afraid that the sullen broken boy, with the overwhelming need to kill his own brother, would hold him back. Maybe he worried that Sasuke would get in the way of his future?

But this wasn’t getting him anywhere. He and Naruto would talk after the _Chuunin_ exam and, hopefully, things would sort themselves out from there. There was no doubt in Sasuke’s mind that Naruto would choose to lock away the old memories, and once he did things would go back to normal. Or as normal as things ever were, with Naruto involved.

They just had to get passed the _Chuunin_ exam.

***

  


“Naruto, stand still.”

Today was the day of the _Chuunin_ exam, and team seven had found themselves standing off to the side of a massive underground arena, with seating carved into the rock walls themselves. Naruto was excited and couldn’t stop himself from fidgeting, moving from foot-to-foot as he stared up at the crowds of people around them.

“The old-hag Hokage is here!” Naruto chirped enthusiastically, barely casting Sasuke a glance. “How long do you think these fights will last?”

Sasuke’s expression turned speculative and he looked up into the crowd. “Did you make your decision then?” he asked, apparently offhandedly.

Naruto faltered, “well…. No, not really. I just…. I want to talk to her.”

Sasuke turned back to Naruto, his eyes searching the other boy’s face for a moment before he looked away again, “hn.”

The wait for everyone to settle down was excruciating for Naruto and he was sure he’d burst from impatience before the fights even started; he wanted them over with.

“I’m going to sit over there!” Naruto suddenly declared, pointing to an area almost directly below where the _Kage_ were sitting. The walk helped settle his impatience slightly, and by the time he got to where he was going the announcer had declared the fights begun and called the names of the first two fighters; Naruto zoned out as soon as he heard that it wasn’t him, or any of his team, and dropped into his own thoughts.

He’d spent most of the day before sitting in the most open area of Hidden Dark village that he could find, thinking. Thinking about everything that was happening to him, and around him; and everything that had been caused because of him. He wanted, but he didn’t want. He didn’t want, but he wanted. Everything for him was normally so clear-cut, but now he felt like he’d turned into nothing but a giant, walking conflict with himself.

Most of his memories of being the Fourth were happy ones. The Fourth had grown up with friends and family; never hated, always loved. He was the pride of Konoha. But what was he now? As Naruto he was hated, despised. Parents herded their children away when they saw him coming, and no matter how much he tried to prove he was worthy, it always fell flat, somehow. So, how was he supposed to give up these new memories? They were his and they were memories he’d always dearly wished he could have.

But it was making things so difficult. Sasuke…

What was he supposed to do about him? His old self, the him that he had been, shied away from the notion of letting the other boy get any closer. Sasuke was his best friend, his rival…and he was so young. The him that he was, though… Sasuke had always been there. Through everything, no matter how horrible, messed up, or deadly. Naruto always wanted him to be there. A life without Sasuke was unthinkable.

And then there was Sakura.

A statement of fact that made Naruto screw up his forehead in frustration. Hadn’t it been Sakura he’d had the crush on all these years? He’d diligently kept trying with her, over and over, even though he knew she’d reject him; he’d never given up.

But how much of that was because he knew that she would reject him, and how much because he’d really been trying? He could gloss over it like he always did. Say that he’d had a crush on Sakura for years and that his feelings had never changed…but they had. Somewhere along the lines they had and…and now Sasuke was…. He was….

It had crept up on him. He hadn’t even realised the feelings were there, sitting and waiting to one day be noticed. It was wrong. He shouldn’t feel like he did. He was supposed to be interested in Sakura, not Sasuke.

Sasuke wanted him, too. His newly found powers of observation pointed that out at almost every opportunity, but then it wasn’t like Sasuke was trying to hide it.

Sasuke wasn’t thinking. He didn’t get it. He was confused, he couldn’t possibly know what it was that he was getting himself in to. He was still a kid; still just a child. But that was the old him thinking. The much older him that looked out of Naruto’s eyes and couldn’t remember ever having been so young. It was screwing up everything.

“Naruto, pay attention!”

Naruto blinked and jerked his head up, staring wide-eyed at a furious looking Sakura.

“You missed Sasuke’s fight!” she accused, her glare becoming all the more fierce.

“What?” he hadn’t been thinking that long…had he?

Sakura began to tap her foot, and closed her eyes as if she were trying to block him out of her sight. “You weren’t listening at all, were you!” she declared. “The first fight was a double knockout,” she opened her eyes again, “Sasuke fought next. He won, of course!” she added.

“Oh,” Naruto said.

Sakura’s eyes narrowed. “Is that all you can say?!” she demanded. “Sasuke won, he’s going on to the next round; he fought really well and you weren’t even watching!”

“I…”

“You’re just inconsiderate!” Sakura continued, right over top of him, “you always were. You think only about yourself and of beating Sasuke. Why he even….”

“Sakura!” Naruto was on his feet, not quite sure how he had gotten there, “you know that’s not true. Stop trying to….”

“You’re just…!” Sakura began to talk over Naruto again but they were both abruptly cut off.

“… _ **Uzumaki Naruto, and Ha**_ _ **r**_ _ **u**_ _ **n**_ _ **o Sakura!**_ ”

Naruto stared at the man standing in the centre of the fighting arena. He can’t have heard that right.

“If you’d both be so kind as to come down here,” the man said, his voice laced with irritation.

Sakura was the one to recover from their shock first and to walk calmly into the arena. His mind slightly blank, Naruto followed.

Somehow it had never occurred to him that he might have to fight Sakura. He’d expected that he’d probably have to fight Sasuke, but the possibility of fighting Sakura hadn’t even entered his mind.

“If you’re both ready?”

Naruto glared at the man as if he was personally responsible for every bad thing that had ever happened to him.

“Yes,” Sakura said firmly.

“Then begin,” the man backed away quickly and, as Naruto watched him move, Sakura’s fist collided with the side of his face, and sent him staggering backwards.

“ _Damn it_!” Naruto pulled himself together in time to block the next three punches Sakura threw at him and on the last he saw an opening. It was instinct that made him go for it, but it was in innate ‘Naruto-ness’ that made him suddenly stop in mid punch, allowing Sakura to land a kick that sent him tumbling backwards. He couldn’t hit Sakura. “ _Damn it,_ ” he muttered the words again as he dodged out of the way of another of Sakura’s attacks, thinking hard. He couldn’t hit her; there was probably nothing on hell, heaven, or earth that would force him to hurt her.

Naruto hesitated, and Sakura saw it.

“What are you doing, idiot!” the girl snapped from where she was standing, ready, a few feet away.

“I…”

“This is a fight, Naruto. You can’t just dodge, so stand up and fight!” Sakura’s was on him again in a second and Naruto dodged, realising, a moment to late, that the attack had been launched by a _bu_ _n_ _shin_ and barely managed to slide out of the way of Sakura’s real attack, earning himself a graze across his cheek and the feeling of blood trickling from the small wound.

“What are you waiting for?” Sakura demanded.

He couldn’t hurt her, “I-I can’t….”

Sakura scowled, “can’t what? Can’t hit me? Can’t hurt me?”

Naruto nodded weakly.

“It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think,” she said scathingly. “Perhaps it’s just because you don’t think I’m a strong enough of an opponent for you. I’m not as strong as Sasuke, I’m not as good at strategy as Shikamaru, and I don’t even have any specialized jutsu like Ino. Am I to weak for you to fight, Naruto?”

“N-no. Of course not, Sakura!” Naruto stared at the girl, wide-eyed. He’d never seen her so intense; her gaze pinned him in place and he couldn’t have moved if he’d wanted to.

“Then what are you doing, Naruto?” she said. “If I’m not to weak, then why won’t you fight? You can’t say you don’t want to hurt me.”

“But I don’t….”

“Stop it! How can you say that when you…with Sasuke…. How can you say that?”

Sakura was crying; angry, fierce tears that Naruto knew were entirely his fault.

Naruto hated it when Sakura cried.

“Sakura, I…,” this is what he was doing to his friends, all because he wanted to be with Sasuke. He’d been jealous of her. Jealous that she’d been spending time with Sasuke when he hadn’t been…. Now he suddenly realised how Sakura must have felt. All the time that was how she’d felt. “I….”

“And you won’t even admit it!” Sakura was ignoring the tears making their way down her cheeks and was glaring at Naruto furiously, her hands balled up at her sides. “You know how Sasuke feels about you; but you’re pretending that you don’t! Do you know…yesterday, when you disappeared, he spent all day thinking about you. He wouldn’t eat, he barely spoke and I asked him why he didn’t just go after you if he was that worried. He said he had to give you time.” Sakura was suddenly very close to Naruto, grabbing the front of his shirt and shaking him slightly. “Give you _time_ , Naruto! He has absolute faith in you and he keeps just giving you time. But you…what are you doing? Do you even care what he’s going through over you?!”

“N-no…. Yes, I…. _Sakura_ ….”

Sakura punched him. _Hard_.

Naruto reeled backwards out of her grip, landing with a thump on the ground and sliding backwards a few feet across the dirt floor.

“What are you thinking, Naruto.”

Naruto looked up at Sakura. Her voice had been small, no longer the furious hiss she had been using.

“What are you thinking? I don’t understand. Sasuke deserves to be happy, I think he does. I wanted-. But he doesn’t want me; he wants you.”

“I-I can’t…” the words stuck in his throat, almost refusing to come out.

“Why not?”

“Sasuke is….” _…_ _my best friend._ “He’s just so….” _…_ _young._ “I don’t want….” _…_ _to lose him._

“He loves you, Naruto,” the words were like a slap in the face and had about the same effect on Naruto as dumping a bucket of ice water over his head, “do you love him?”

Naruto opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Do you!?” she demanded.

“I-I think. I….”

Sakura suddenly sunk into a crouching position, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I can’t be with him, Naruto,” she said slowly, staring at the dirt under her feet. “So you have to. If you love him then you have to; we can’t let him be alone.”

“Sakura….”

Sakura was supposed to hate him; he supposed she did, but she was looking passed that, Naruto realised. Her vision, her view of the future, was so much clearer than his was. No matter how hard he had tried all he’d been able to see for months now was backwards. Back at who he had been, at what he’d had; he hadn’t, even once, looked forward.

How could he have forgotten? All his life he had looked forward; both lives, old and new alike. The past wasn’t somewhere you could live, and hope to live happily; the past was just that. Past.

He had to talk to Sasuke.

Taking a breath, Naruto slowly pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off as much as he could.

“You’re right,” he said at length, finally looking up at the pink-haired girl, “about all of it. Thank you, Sakura-chan!”

Sakura rose back to her feet, “don’t thank me! Just do the right thing!”

“I will,” Naruto grinned, “but, right now I should fight you seriously.”

Sakura's eyes went wide and then she glanced around at the crowed as if she had only just realised where they were. In an instant her eyes were back on Naruto, and then her hand shot up into the air and her voice rang out over the arena, “I give up!”

“What?”

“I’m not stupid, Naruto, I’m not going to fight you for real!”

“But!”

“You’re an _idiot_!” Sakura declared and, with that, turned on her heel and marched out of the arena.

“ _And th_ _e_ _winner of the third round is Uzumaki Naruto_!” Naruto transferred his gaze from Sakura’s retreating back to the announcer who was now standing next to him and looking annoyed, “now get out of the arena.”

***

“Hey, _dobe,_ ” Sasuke studied Naruto closely as he approached and wasn’t surprised when his call got no response. Naruto was standing with his back against the wall of the arena, staring at the ground with a frown on his face, his mind a million miles away. Sasuke tried again.

“ _Naruto_.”

This time the blond blinked and looked up, finally focusing on Sasuke as the black-haired boy came to a halt in front of him, “Sasuke? Is it my turn again?”

Sasuke snorted, “no. There’s a hold-up, the _Kage’s_ left.”

Naruto’s eyebrows rushed together, “is everything alright? Should we-?”

“Everything is fine; Kakashi said they were arguing about something and decided to take it where they weren’t going to be overheard.”

“In the middle of the fights?” Naruto twisted away from the wall and tried to stare up into the stands above him, trying to see where the two _Kage_ had gone off to.

“We’re the only ones left, you know,” Sasuke said and settled himself against the wall beside where Naruto had been leaning.

Naruto glanced back at him, “what happened to the others? Didn’t you have another one first?”

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and schooled his expression into one of disinterest, “apparently, he didn’t want to fight me.”

“Then, shouldn’t I have had another one?”

“He didn’t want to fight you, either,” Sasuke shot the other boy a sidelong look, his lips twitching up in amusement.

“But Sakura bet the crap out of me during my fight!” Naruto exclaimed and resettled himself against the wall, beside Sasuke.

“Yeah, but they saw the eliminations, and I _heard_ that they thought you were going easy on Sakura cause she’s your team-mate, and you wanted her to pass the exam.”

“That’s stupid,” Naruto grouched. “I was _going_ to fight her seriously, but she gave up.”

Sasuke felt a smile well up from somewhere deep in his chest, a place it seemed that only Naruto could touch. The blond sounded almost like normal.

“Hey…. Sasuke?”

But that didn’t. It was that hesitant voice again; the one Sasuke was beginning to hate hearing because it wasn’t anything like the other boy’s normal brash, unthinking, bravado.

Sasuke steeled himself and turned his head slightly in Naruto’s direction, watching him from the corner of his eyes.

“I’ve been screwing up a lot lately,” Naruto said in a rush, “and I’ve had a lot on my mind, but that’s not really a good excuse for how I’ve been acting. I.... The memories I’ve been having, I thought they were important. I thought that if I could keep them, then I could have some of the things I never had in my life, like family, and...,” he huffed impatiently, “Sakura yelled at me a lot during our fight. She said some things that made me realise that having memories isn’t what’s important and that I have to stop thinking about what I didn’t have this time around, and focus on what I _do_ have.”

“And what do you have?” Sasuke couldn’t help but ask the question.

“I have friends,” Naruto replied promptly. “I have people that are precious to me. People that may not be my family by blood, but are definitely my family by love. I have Kakashi, and Iruka, and Sakura, even if she is mad at me. And I have you.”

Sasuke took a deep breath as Naruto said it. He hadn’t realised just how badly he’d needed to hear that. To hear that he really was a part of Naruto’s life. He, Sasuke, was one of the few, precious people that Naruto considered important.

“ _If_ you’re not to angry at me, that is,” Naruto amended. “I keep doing stupid things, and cutting you out of what’s happening. I keep.... I keep thinking that you’re going to get mad, and leave, and I don’t want you to. That you might scares me.”

_Idiot._

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not going anywhere?” the words didn’t come out nearly as irritated as Sasuke had intended them to be.

“I don’t know, a million? I’m a bit stupid, you know.”

Sasuke took a deep breath and then turned to face Naruto, grabbing the blond’s chin so he could look him in the eye, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Naruto’s eyes had gone wide and, slowly, a patch of pink was beginning to spread across his cheeks. Sasuke had put everything he could into those words, and he focused on putting just as much into the stare the two of them were sharing. This was important, more than anything else; he had to make sure Naruto understood that he meant this. He meant it more than anything.

“Ah- _hem_....”

Both Sasuke and Naruto jerked at the sound and jumped away from each other guiltily, Sasuke spinning on his heel as he moved to face the Hokage as she leered at them knowingly.

“As sweet as you two are, I’m here to give you both some news.”

“N-news?” Naruto seemed to be trying to get a grip on himself, but the faint pink blush was turning steadily redder.

“Great news!” Tsunade threw her hands out wide and grinned at them, “you both win! The _Yamikage_ and I had a long discussion and agreed that the caverns should remain caverns instead of becoming craters. Congratulations!”

“We win?” Sasuke frowned, “what about the exam? We’re supposed to....”

“Look, kid.” Tsunade leaned in closer to Sasuke, “don’t question such good fortune. You both won, we all thought it was very impressive, and everyone agrees you should both pass the exam. Are you going to argue with me?!”

Sasuke opened his mouth, glanced at Naruto, and then shut it again, uncertainly.

“Good choice!” Tsunade put her hands on her hips and turned to Naruto, “and it looks like we’ve got business to attend to. No time for fighting, anyway.”

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, and then nodded firmly.

“Yeah, it’s about time it got dealt with.”

“Alright, then! Move it!”


	11. Epilogue

## Epilogue

  


“ _Damn it!_ ”

Naruto’s scream of frustration bounced around the tight-nit trees and echoed off into the distance. Sasuke sighed.

“ _Baka_ , you're going to give away our position if you keep yelling like that.”

“And I’d like to do this mission without pulling every nin in the area down on our heads,” Sakura backed Sasuke up quickly, glaring up at Naruto.

“But,” Naruto swung himself down out of the tree he had been standing in, and landed next to Sasuke with a light _thud_.

“No ‘buts’,” Sasuke interrupted, already checking Naruto over silently for injuries, “the mission just got complicated, but we can deal with it.”

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the ground, “but, I wanted to be done today. I wanted to get home!”

Sasuke shot Naruto a startled glance. Behind him Sakura giggled.

“Oh, that’s _right_ ,” she said, still laughing, “it’s date night.”

“ _Shut up_!” Naruto blushed brightly and glared at Sakura. “It’s ramen night, I want ramen! _Ramen_!”

“Sasuke’s _home-made_ ramen,” Sakura corrected.

“ _Shut up_!”

Sasuke tilted his head slightly as he noticed several sets of  _chakra_ appearing in the trees nearby, and then focused back on his teammates. From the looks on their faces, both had already noticed that they had company and Sasuke tensed in preparation for more fighting.  He had rather been hoping they would make it back to the village that night as well, but it was pretty much a given these days that their missions were never going to be simple.

“Sasuke-kun...?”

“I see them,” Sasuke responded, and then grabbed Naruto by the shirt front and pulled him in for a swift, but fierce, kiss. “Date night tomorrow night,” he promised, and then he was gone, darting out into the trees to flank their poorly hidden enemies.

Behind him he could hear Naruto’s flustered yelling and Sakura’s amused laughter. He would pay for that move later, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way.


End file.
